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Tibb-ul-Nabbi or Medicine of the Prophet

Author(s): Cyril Elgood

Source: Osiris , Vol. 14 (1962), pp. 33-192

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CYRIL ELGOOD

Part 2 Section I Properties of Foods & Drugs

(a) Simple Drugs 66

(b) Compound Drugs 119

Section II Dosage of Drugs 121

Section III Reflections on Compounds 12 1

Parts Section I Disease & Treatment 123

Section II Is it better to use Drugs? 124

Section III On calling-in a Physician 126

Section IV The Imposition of Abstinence 127

Section V Encouragement to study of Medicine 128

Section VI Doctors’ Fees 130

Section VII Palpation & Inspection 132

Section VIII Permission of Women doctors 133

Section IX No Compulsion in extremis 134

Section X Minor Attentions to the Sick 136

Section XI Visits by the Sick 137

Section XII Prohibition of Things impure 138

Section XIII Fevers 139

Section XIV Treatment of Minor Maladies 142

Section XV Cauterisation 144

Section XVI Blows, Fractures & Bites 146

Section XVII Night-flying Insects 148

Section XVIII The Plague 149

Section XIX Rules of Coitus 15 1

Section XX The Evil Eye 152

Section XXI Spiritual Drugs 157

Section XXII Good Results of various Acts 161

Section XXIII Embryology & Anatomy 165

Section XXIV Listening to Singing 175

Section XXV Small Pox, Measles & Chicken Pox 176

Conclusion

Notes on certains Names 178

Index of main Subjects 184

The Translation of the Tibb-ul-Nabbi of Mahmud bin

Mohamed al-Chaghavni 186

A. Tradition in Islam

The faith and practice of Islam, like Christianity, is hedged
around with tradition. Like Christianity there is a central core
upon which later traditional faith and practices are built. In the
case of Islam this central core is known as the Quran. The words
of the Quran are God’s words, coming through the mouth of His
Prophet Mohamed, like music from a gramophone record. In their
beliefs pious Moslems are all Fundamentalists.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Unlike Christianity, Islam had no competing civilisation at the
time of its origin. Christianity was born in a nation which had
inherited the Hebrew tradition and had also imbibed Greek
culture. The position of Mohamed was therefore very different
from that of Christ. The former could speak as the voice of God
with no one to question him. He could institute a new Faith,
dictate new beliefs and practices derived from nothing more
ancient than his own beliefs and imagination. The legality of the
tribute to Caesar could be answered by Mohamed with no dissenting
authority.

The questions put to Christ on the other hand were very like
questions put to a Brains Trust today. In His case there was always
some one to get up and say: This answer conflicts with what so-
and-so, an acknowledged authority, used to say.

Hence the traditions of Islam go into much greater detail than
do those of Christianity, they regulate public and private actions to
a far greater degree, and they are far more binding than Christian
traditions. They differ, too, in that they are supposed to be the
ipsissima verba of Mohamed, whereas the traditions of Christianity
are none derived from Christ’s own words and at the best can but
represent His mind.

To doubt the authenticity of the individual words of the Quran
is forbidden to a Believer, though ‘printers’ errors’ are admittedly
possible. But when the significance of these words is raised, quite
another question is opened. It is here that Tradition begins.

The first method of interpreting the Quran is by means of the
Quran itself. Such a method is called Deduction or al-Qiyas.
Thus, many Islamic casuists maintain that modern alcoholic
drinks cannot have been forbidden by the Prophet because he did
not know of them. Others consider that the principle of ‘The
Whole contains the Parts’ is to be applied. And because the Quran
forbids intoxicants in general, it must therefore also forbid them
in particular.

Another example of this Deductive Method of interpretation is
the application of the principle of e fortiori. The Quran does not
forbid a child to strike his parents. But it does forbid the saying
of ‘Fie upon you’ to them. E fortiori violence is condemned.

A second method of interpretation depends upon the sayings
and doings of the Prophet. The corpus of these sayings and doings

CYRIL ELGOOD

is known as The Sunna &~JI. An individual saying incorporated
in the Sunna is known as al-Athara These actions and

sayings are a legitimate method of interpreting doubtful Quranic
texts. The veracity of the Sunna itself depends upon the trust-
worthiness of the chain of authorities along which it has passed
from the life-time of the Prophet until its written record. In
technical language an authority for an athara is known as a Sanad
jjLw (pi. asanid) (pi. JjLJ). The act of making such a chain of
authorities is called al-Isnad Only one such chain is

quoted in its entirety in this work. See folio no.

The Sunna is contained in the ‘Six authentic books’ of Tradi-
tion. Those who accept these traditions are known as Sunnis and
to this division of Islam the greater part of the Moslem world
belongs. Followers of this division not only accept the Sunna
as their rule of faith and practice, but also differ from their co-
religionists by acknowledging the first three successors of Moha-
med as genuine caliphs, that is to say, Abu Bakr, ‘Umr, and
‘Uthman. The two parties reunite in recognising ‘Ali who suc-
ceeded ‘Uthman. The Sunnis also accept the teaching of the four
orthodox schools of jurisprudence, headed by al-Hanbal, al-Hanifa,
al-Malik, and al-Shafi c i.

The word Sunna, which may best be rendered by ‘Tradition’
although a more exact meaning is “Path”, is not confined to what
the Prophet said or did. It is enlarged by Moslem theologians to
include words and deeds of the Companions of the Prophet, that
is, of the people who were in actual contact with him and who
were by that very fact presumed to know his intentions. Unlike
Christian tradition, antiquity alone adds no weight to a tradition.
The early Moslems of Ethiopia, for example, were never in contact
with the Prophet, except of course the Muhajirun who had fled
from Mecca. In consequence their sayings and doings, although
very primitive, can form no part of the Sunna

It is obvious, then, that there is no general obligation to accept
the Sunna. It is in fact rejected by a large section of Islam, known
as the ShPas. But to the Sunnis (who include the Turks and a
large part of the Arabs) if the foundation of a tradition is unassail-
able, then it commands belief. And anyone who accepts any
tradition as a true tradition and yet disbelieves it or acts contrary
to it, then such a one becomes ipso facto an Unbeliever. Tradition

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 37

is therefore under circumstances elevated to the position of revealed
dogma and is supplementary to the Quran.

Traditions are classified according to the various walks in life
with which they were concerned. Thus, there are the Traditions of
the theologians, the Traditions of the lawyers, and the Traditions
of the doctors of Medicine.

Should a decision on a new point of faith or practice be required,
the jurisconsult fled to the Sunna for the authority on which to
base his decision. A parallel drawn from Western practice will
make this clear. The Church of Rome can give an ad hoc decision
by virtue of having in the Pope a living voice. Non-Catholics
appeal to the first four or five centuries of Christianity. Yet neither
is quite similar to Islam. Their base is wider. A closer resemblance
is that of English case law. Here the corpus of the Law is erected
upon previous decisions which in turn date back to previous
decisions, which in turn date back to accepted custom or law.
Write for ‘accepted custom or law’ ‘the Quran and the Sunna’
and the parallel is exact.

One section of the Sunna which contains only the very words of
the Prophet himself, is further distinguished by its own tittle. It is
known as al-Hadith The book of which a translation

follows, is a collection of the hadith concerned with Medicine.

Like other branches of conduct the art of therapeutics among
the primitive Arabs in the early days of Islam was based on the
customs of the desert, modified by what the Prophet said and did.
To understand the foundations of what later became known as the
Arabian System of Medicine it is necessary to grasp this fact. For
the System grew from Bedouin Medicine. In this work of al-
Suyuti the author has collected and commented on a large number
of these medical sayings of Mohamed. Hence its importance in the
History of Medicine.

Physicians have never been famed for orthodoxy and the story
of Arabian Medicine is one of continual rebellion by the doctors
against the system of thought imposed upon them by the theolo-
gians. The first opponent of orthodoxy was desert folk-lore with
its superstitions and relics of paganism. This put up a very poor
fight. Then came Greek Medicine, Indian Medicine, and probably
Chinese Medicine. These were all incorporated into Arabian
Medicine and more or less islamised. But it is very evident that

3 «

CYRIL ELGOOD

the theologians realised the heterodoxy of the new-comers, for
over and over again laws were passed governing the relationship
between the orthodox patient and the non-believing doctor. It
was a continual struggle to fit traditional Medicine into a new and
more scientific system which was being introduced from outside.

With the arrival of Western Medicine the theologians gave
up the task. It is no part of this book to describe the losing fight
that traditional Arabian Medicine put up against the Western
system. I have tried to describe it in my book entitled Persian
Medicine. All that I would say here is that traditional beliefs and
practices still survive in many parts of Saudi Arabia and among
the tribes along the Persian Gulf and that it only finally disappeared
from Persia in the beginning of the 20th century.

The value of al-Suyuti’s work, I repeat, is that it shows the foun-
dations upon which Arabian Medicine was built, that it shows how
far orthodox Arab physicians were restrained in the development
of scientific ideas by religion, and it makes clear why the greatest
names of early Islamic physicians were Persians who were ShPas
and were not bound by the Sunna or were Christians or Jews who
were not bound by Islam at all.

To revert to the Sunna from which I have strayed. From what
has been said above it is clear that a large amount of the onus of
interpreting the meaning of the Quran is shifted to proving the
authenticity of the traditional sayings. Hence the early Arabs as
soon as centres of learning and culture appeared, produced four
sciences which were considered to be of the highest importance.
These sciences were the Science of Quranic exegesis, the Science
of Apostolic Tradition, the Science of Quranic Criticism, and the
Science of Grammar. To these were soon added the Sciences of
Jurisprudence, Scholastic Theology, and Lexicography. As the
number of works on these subjects increased, there were also
added the Sciences of Rhetoric and Literature. These nine sciences,
being called into being by the needs of the Quran and the Tradi-
tions, the Arabs looked upon as their own offspring in a very
special manner and therefore they called them the Nine Native
Sciences.

Opposed to the Nine Native Sciences were the Sciences of the
foreigner or the Ancient Sciences. These included philosophy,
geometry, astronomy, music, medicine, magic, and alchemy. These

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

the Arabs scarcely touched: the way was left open to the Persians
Sabeans, Jews and mixed races. Thus, the Christian Ibn Jazla
studied Medicine under a Christian teacher. But when he wished
to take up Logic, he was compelled to seek a Moslem professor
Tor none of the Christians of those days were enamoured of that
science’ (i).

As I have already remarked, the final link in each chain was
required to be one of the Companions of the Prophet who had
actually heard the words spoken. Hence, when traditional sayings
came to be written down, they were originally grouped according
to their final authority. Later, as in this work, they were grouped
and classified according to their subject. When this latter method
was adopted, they became known by the technical term of musan-
nafat

Because of the weakness of one or more of the links in the chain
Traditions vary in credibility and later Traditionalists classify
them into various grades depending upon the value to be attached.
The most authoritative traditions are known as Mutawatar yLj*
and of these there are said to be about two thousand five hundred.
The next in value are either Hasan or Sahih or

better than either Hasan sahih (see ff. 51 & 53).

A tradition which is unreliable through weakness of any link is
called Zafif And finally certain traditions should be rejected

as unsupported. Such are known as Matruk jJ or Mozu*
(See f. 92).

Occasionally a more daring critic will hazard a guess at the origin
of these ‘weak traditions’. Some such were styled Israeli, judging
that they were of Jewish origin. Others were called Fursi, as being
of Persian origin. Generally speaking, any traditional saying
extremely improbable or difficult to believe was said by the Arabs
to be a Persian invention.

The lengths to which critics went to prove or disprove their
authorities often involved much labour. It is said that a certain
shaykh once met a new tradition and learning that one of the
authorities in the chain was still alive, took a three day journey to
consult him. On his arrival he became his guest. But when his
host announced that his camel had been fed and watered and he

(1) Bar Hebraeus Hist. Dyn ix.240.

4 o

CYRIL ELGOOD

found this to be untrue, he rejected the new tradition because
this one link in the chain was manifestly unreliable.

The most important of these Musannafat by reason both of its
size and the careful research of its author is the Sahih of ‘Abd-Ullah
Mohamed bin Ismael al-Bukhari (194-256 A.H., that is 809-
869 A.D.). His name occurs many times in this work.

It is interesting to note how closely connected are the famous
traditionalists, how they all rose to fame within a few years of
oneanother. Take al-Tirmidhi, for instance, who is quoted in this
book in frequency second only to al-Bukhari. He studied under
Ibn Hanbal, under al-Bukhari himself, and under Abu Dawud,
all three giants in the subject. Abu Dawud himself was a pupil
of Ibn Hanbal and besides teaching al-Tirmidhi had as a pupil
al-Nasa’i, also a famous traditionalist. All these lived and wrote
in the days of the ‘Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad and it was in their
days that the completion and inscription of the canon of the Sunna
was determined. In fact, Traditionalists flourished in those days
in Baghdad like painters in Florence and like fleas and princes in
Persia.

B. The Manuscripts and the Authors

There are many collections of the traditional sayings of the
Prophet Mohamed on the subject of Medicine. Some of these
sayings lie buried among collected sayings on various other
subjects. Some collections are made of sayings only on medical
subjects. These are contained in pseudo-medical works and often
add the occasion upon which each remark was made and even add
a suitable commentary. A translation of one such compilation is
here offered.

A reference to the Encyclopaedia of Hajji Khalifa shows that he
devotes a special section in his work to what he calls fllm-ul-Tibb-
il-Nabbawi or The Science of Prophetic Medicine. Here he men-
tions seven different works on this subject which were existing
in his day and were known to him. The authors who he names as
having made these collections are Nu'aym Ahmad of Ispahan,
Abu ul-'Abbas Ja'far Mustaghfiri, Jalal-ul-Din al-Suyuti, Abu
ul-Hassan ‘Ali al-Riza, Habib Nishapuri, Habib ul-Thani, and
c Abd-ul-Malik bin Habib.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

4 1

According to Hajji Khalifa ‘Ali al-Riza dedicated his version
to the Caliph al-Ma’mun, who reigned from A.D. 833 to 842. This
then is probably the earliest of these versions. I do not know
whether any copy of this work is now in existence. Possibly the
references in the following translation to a certain person styled
al-Hassan may be to this author.

The next work from the point of view of time is that of Abu
Nu'aym, who lived from A.D. 948 to 1038. He wasaPersian. He is
quoted in this translation as well as by other authors on the
subject so that I judge that his was looked upon as an authoritative
work. An incomplete manuscript of this book is to be found in the
Escurial Library and a copy of it has been made for my personal
library. No other copies are known to exist.

Of the remaining five authors that Hajji Khalifa mentions only
the work of al-Suyiiti has survived. It is his version that I have
translated.

Chronologically speaking there should next be recorded two
works on the subject. The first of the authors lived from A.H. 673
to 748, that is A.D. 1274-1348 and is named Shams-ul-Din al-
Dhahabi. He was of Turcoman origin and lived most of his life in
Damascus and was a follower of Ibn Hanbal in thought. I have not
seen any copy of his work, unless the lithographed work in the
British Museum to which I refer later, is his. This is the view of
Professor George Sarton.

The second of these contemporary writers was a follower of
the rival School of al-Shafi’i and is named Abu ‘Abd-Ullah
Mohamed ibn Qaym al-Juziya. He died in A.H. 751, that is
A.D. 1350/51. His book is readily available as it was printed in
Aleppo in A.D. 1927 and can still be found on sale there. The
editor of this edition states in his introduction that Ibn Qaym
wrote another work entitled Zad-ul-Ma^d which was printed in
Cairo in A.D. 1906. He states that this version of the Tibb-ul-
Nabbi is buried in his bigger book and hence escaped the notice of
Hajji Khalifa, who composed his Lexicon in A.D. 1658.

The version of Prophetic sayings collected by Ibn Qaym is
quoted several times in this translation that follows (see ff. 63, 68,
1 12, and 128).

I now turn to the third existing author mentioned by Hajji Khalifa.
His name in full is Jalal-ul-Din 'Abd-ul-Rahman ibn abi Bakr

CYRIL ELGOOD

al-Suyuti, generally known as al-Suyuti. He was born in Suyut
in Upper Egypt in A.D. 1445. His family originally came from
Persia and he also had Turkish blood in him. An infant genius by
eight he had the Quran by heart and on reaching manhood he was
elected to professorship after professorship in Cairo. However,
on account of peculation he fell into disgrace and was required to
retire into obscurity. He died four years later in A.D. 1505.

He was a prolific writer on a variety of subjects, writing treatises
always in arabic that varied from philosophy to pornography. His
literary output covered the whole field of Moslem science. Among
his medical works he wrote a tract on Diseases of Childhood & their
Cure and another on The Uses of the Depilatory. He composed
two works on Prophetic Medicine, one containing the sayings and
practices of Mohamed in general (which is the one here translated)
and a second work entitled Sexual Relations as ordered by the
Prophet. He also composed pamphlets on more abstruse subjects
connected with the Prophet e.g. whether he wore trousers or
not, whether his turban had a point or not, and whether his parents
were in Heaven or Hell.

The work that I have chosen to translate must have been a very
popular work and there must be many manuscripts of it in existence.
The one I have used I purchased in Cairo not many years ago. There
is a lithographed edition in the British Museum Library, numbered
14535. b.I. It contains 120 pages and is dated A.D. 1870. This was
printed in Cairo.

In the British Museum there is another lithographed book of the
same name, numbered 14535^.9, being written in the margin of
another dissimilar work. The two were printed at Cairo in A.D.
1887 and are spread over 186 pages. The Tibb-ul-Nabbi is not
complete.

In assessing the reliance to be given to the traditions reported
by al-Suyuti in this collection of his, attention must be paid to
his reliability in general. Unfortunately al-Suyuti is unanimously
looked upon as the last person upon whom any reliance can be
placed when it is a question of the authenticity of a statement. The
following statement of a fellow Moslem echoes the general opinion
of all authorities on the trustworthiness of his reports:

“To the fourth class belong all those reports of which no trace
at all is to be met with in the earlier generations, and which were

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

reported only by persons of a later time. With regard to these
reports one of two things must have happened: either the earlier
collectors after enquiry into them, found them to be unauthentic
or fabricated, and therefore they did not report them, or they
did not think them to be fabricated, but found some of their
narrators to be untrustworthy. Upon whatever supposition we
may proceed, it follows that reports of this class are not reliable....
The whole stock of reports on which Jalal-ul-Din Suyuti depends
in his writings and pamphlets belongs to this class.”

The whole position is well summed up by the remark of an
unknown Moslem commentator who wrote: “In nothing do we see
pious men more given to falsehood than in Traditions”.

With regard to minor versions of Prophetic Medicine, I have
seen a manuscript in the Vatican Library, numbered Arabic Font
258.16. It is entered upon page 11 of the catalogue and is there
ascribed to the nth. century A.H., that is 1591 to 1688 A.D. It
is very faded and is barely legible. The author is supposed to be a
certain Mohamed bin Yusuf al-Sanusi (died i486 A.D.). It is a
very short work and consists of only six folios.

Another well known version is that of Mohamed Akbar Arzani,
written in Persian for the use of Alamgir, emperor of Delhi. It is
based on al-Suyuti. It was composed in 1700 A.D. and was litho-
graphed in Bombay in A.D. 1881. There is a copy of this in the
British Museum.

Next is the version by Mahmud bin ( Umar Jaghmim of which I
also present a translation as a contrast to the much longer version of
al-Suyuti and as a specimen of the aphoristic form of writing which
was once so popular in Persia. This is written in Arabic. Mahmud
also wrote in Persian a book called Qanunchi fi il-Tibb, being an
extract from the Canon of Avicenna. The edition that I used for
my translation is a small book lithographed in Teheran in 1888/89
and is in my private collection.

There must be many other versions that I have not discovered.
Lately through the kindness of Dr. Suhrab Hakim of Bombay I
have received a copy of a work on this same subject written in Urdu
and printed in A.D. 1953 by the successors of the Newal Kishore
Press of Lucknow. It is 56 pages in length and of course contains
many Arabic quotations. Many of the anecdotes are the same as
those recounted by al-Suyuti. But it is an entirely different book.

CYRIL ELGOOD

There is no section on Drugs and no section on Anatomy. After the
preliminary introduction it launches into the subject by discussing
the views of the Prophet on marriage. The author names himself
in the text as Karam-ul-Din.

To complete this brief summary of works on the Medicine of
the Prophet I should not omit a plagiarism which exists in only
one manuscript known to me. This is called Tibb-ul-Admmat or
Medicine of the Apostles. The version that I have seen is in the
private collection of Dr. Caro Minasian of Ispahan. He has num-
bered it in his catalogue A. 735. When I saw it, he had not found
time to read it. A hurried examination showed that it is written
in Persian and contains a large number of lengthy extracts in
Arabic. The author styles himself Ibn Rashid-ul-Din Mohamed
‘Arab. Though obviously moulded on the works that I have already
quoted, it appears to me to differ considerably from them and is
worth further study.

Finally there is Dr. Perron’s translation into French of al-Suyuti’s
long work which I have consulted during my translation. This was
originally published in La Gazette medicale de l’Algerie and was
reprinted as a separate work in Algiers in i860. I here offer a
translation of this same work that Perron gave to the world one
hundred years ago. Perron omits a certain amount of the text which
he considers of no interest. I give the whole text unexpurgated.
His book is quite unobtainable now. The only copies that I know
of, can be seen in London, in Paris, and in Washington. The
principal library in each of these cities has one copy.

On account of its rarity, on account of the fame of al-Suyuti, and
on account of the importance of the subject in the history of the
developement of Islamic Medicine, I have ventured to present yet
one more translation of the Tibb-ul-Nabbi.

There is one curious feature which must be mentioned. Perron
describes his book as a translation of a work by Jalal-ul-Din abu
Salayman Dawud. The first folio of the manuscript from which I
made my translation, also ascribes the contents of the manuscript
to Abu Sulayman. Such an ascription must certainly be false in
the light of the evidence of the Lexicon of Hajji Khalifa. For there
he actually quotes the opening words of al-Suyuti’s work and they
are identical with the opening sentence both in Perron’s translation
and in my manuscript.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Why do both Perron and my copyist ascribe the authorship
thus incorrectly? Did they both labour under the error that this
book of traditions was the work of the well known traditionalist
Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, who flourished about the end of the ninth
century A.D. ? Or can the explanation be that by chance the copy
that I picked up in a second-hand book shop in Cairo was the
very one used by Perron who did not investigate the authorship and
perpetuated the error of the copyist? Unfortunately this theory is
proved untenable by the fact that the copying of my text was not
made until twenty-five years after Perron’s translation was publish-
ed. There is therefore no explanation for this error that I can
suggest at the moment.

C. A Note on the Spelling

A glance at the glossary of Proper Names at the end of this
book shows that there is mention of a gigantic number of people.
In transliterating these names from the Arabic script into the
Roman alphabet I have tried to follow the system laid down by
the Royal Asiatic Society of London. But I have had to make a
few exceptions.

The insistence upon dots and lines underneath letters is not so
pedantic as it may appear. At times it is the only way to distinguish
between quite different people. Were I to write Omar, for instance,
with no accents as many people do, I might be referring to ( Umr
(j±z)y to Amr (^!), to ‘Umar (,Ls) or even to ‘Umru (a,<ss).

Briefly then my rules are:

i. to place dots and accents and bars where recommended by the
Royal Asiatic Society.

ii. to write well known names in the usual manner e.g. Mohamed
and not Muhammad.

iii. to write all the written Arabic letters whether pronounced in
the Arabic speech or elided and not pronounced.

iv. as a sop to my Persian prejudices I write Z for thus writing
Ramazan and not Ramadan, but I compensate by writing
TH and not S for

4 6

CYRIL ELGOOD

In the text certain names invariably have a pious suffix attached.
These I omit in my translation to save space. But for the sake of
completeness I give below a list of these ejaculations. They are not
without their value, for frequently when only a single name is
given, it becomes possible to identify who is intended, which ‘Ali
or which al-Malik for instance, by giving heed to the suffix em-
ployed. In the case of God or His Prophet occasionally only the
suffix is used and the name is to be understood from it.

1. applied only to God that is, Glorified be He and many

other similar phrases.

2. applied only to Mohamed that is, May God

pour blessings upon him & preserve him.

3. applied only to the Companions of Mohamed and the four

chief Imams of Islam ^ ^2, that is, May God reward him.

4. applied only to ‘Ali bin abi Talib, the Caliph ^
that is, May God make his face exel in honour.

5. applied to all prophets and archangels aJc that is, Upon

him be peace.

6. applied to any deceased person aiJ! that is, May the

mercy of God be upon him.

D. An Acknowledgement

A pleasant task remains, that of thanking those who have helped
me in the translation and my understanding of the text. My
manuscript is fairly clear except in places where the scribe has let
his attention wander or did not know the word he was copying. Such
phrases puzzled even the Arabic scholars who were helping me.

Among these helpers I would like to mention by name.

I. ‘Ali Karar who when I first began the work was stationed with
me in Kordofan and who inspired me with his enthusiasm.
He together with my teacher of Arabic Mr. Ramsey of the
Camel Corps fanned my interest in the book and helped me
enormously from their great fund of Arabic knowledge.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

II. Fahmy and Musa who were in the Education Department in
Doha, Qatar, during the time that I was there. In the same
town at that time lived al-Khalidi of the Shell Company who
also gave me great assistance from his wide acquaintance with
classical Arabic.

III. Wakil, who was my final helper, whom I was lucky enough
to find living in retirement in the Seychelles at the time that I
too retired there. An ‘Iraqi lawyer his knowledge of Arabic
is wide and he never grudged me his leisure when it was a
question of solving a doubtful reading which had defeated us
all till then.

To all these six scholars and to others un-named I express most
grateful thanks.

Make Cyril Elgood.

Seychelles

TIBB-ul-NABBI of AL-SUYUTI

Folio 3

PREFACE

In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Praise be to God who has given existence to every soul and has inspired
each towards good acts and bad acts, and has taught what is for their good
and what is for their harm, what causes sickness and what causes health,
and has given death and bestowed new life.

And I bear witness that there is no God but God, and that He is One
and without a Partner. And I bear witness that Mohamed is His Prophet
and His worshipper. He has sent him with mercy for whosoever is fit for
mercy and with punishments for whosoever deserves punishment. May
the mercy of God be upon him and his family for ever and ever until the
Day of the Resurrection and the Day of Good Tidings.

And Next. It is obligatory upon every Moslem that he draw as close
to Almighty God as he can and that he put forth all his powers in attention
to His commands and obedience to Him and that he make the best use of
his means and that he succeed in drawing near to Him by conforming to
what is commanded and refraining from what is forbidden and that he
strive for what gives benefit to Mankind by the preservation of good health
and the treatment of disease. For good health is essential for the perform-
ance of religous obligations and for the worship of God.

Verily I have relied upon God in my collection of some of the wise
medical sayings of the Prophet. Whatever is required for the preservation
of good health and whatever is opposed to good health, are all found here.
I seek the help of God. My aim is His glory and His acceptance. He is my
support, the most excellent of protectors. There is no power and no
strength except in God, the Beloved, the Wise.

If you find any fault, then correct it, I pray;

For faultless is none except God, you must say.

I have divided this Book into three parts:

i. the Rules of Medicine, practical & theoretical.

ii. Drugs & Food.

iii. Treatment of Diseases.

Part One is divided into two sections. The first of these concerns theo-
retical rules and is in its turn subdivided into four sub-sections. The first
of these four concerns the Constitution of Man, the second concerns the
State of the Body of Man, the third is on Aetiology, and the fourth deals
with Signs.

PART ONE

Folio 4

See Quran 68.4

Section I

THEORY OF MEDICINE
(a) The Constitution of Man

The Constitution of Man is concerned with seven components. The
first component is the Elements which are four in number — fire which is
hot & dry, air which is hot & wet, water which is cold & wet, and earth
which is cold & dry.

The second component is the Temperaments which are nine in number.
The first is an evenly balanced temperament. The second is an unevenly
balanced temperament, which may be unmixed, being then hot, cold,
damp, or dry. Or it may be an unevenly balanced but mixed temperament,
being hot & dry or hot & wet or cold & dry or cold & wet.

The most evenly balanced of all animal temperaments is the tempera-
ment of Man. The most evenly balanced of all the temperaments of
Mankind is the temperament of a Believer. The most evenly balanced of
the temperaments of Believers are the temperaments of the Prophets.
The most evenly balanced of the temperaments of all the prophets are the
temperaments of the Messengers of God. And the most evenly balanced
temperaments of all the messengers of God is the temperament of those
endowed with a resolution to obey God. And the most evenly balanced
of those so endowed is the temperament of Our Lord Mahomed (upon
whom may fall the blessing of God and peace).

I maintain that the reason why Mahomed was the most evenly balanced
in character from the point of view of temperament according to the rules
of Medicine is because the nature of his character was subservient to the
temperament of his body and the more perfectly balanced is the tempera-
ment of the body, the better is the nature of the character. And He
the all-Knowing, glorious and Almighty is He, has born witness that
the Prophet was of an excellent character.

Said ‘Ayesha: The character of the Prophet is the Quran. Hence it
needs must be that his temperament be the most balanced of tempera-
ments. And if his temperament were the most balanced of temperaments,
then his character must have been the best of characters.

Said al-Bukhari in his book called Al-Sahih or The Genuine: The Pro-
phet was the best of men in appearance and the best of men in character.

Said Anas: I served the Prophet for ten years. He never once upbraided
me. He never asked me why I had done anything that I had done nor
asked me why I had left undone anything that I had left undone.

5 °

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 5

Folio 6

Said Ibn ‘Umr: The Prophet was never indecent nor ever talked inde-
cently. He used to say: The best of you are those who are finest in cha-
racter.

Al-Bukhari relates that a Bedouin once pulled a cloak from the shoulders
of the Prophet with so violent a pull that he hurt his shoulder. Then he
said: O Mohamed, make me a present of the money of God which you
possess. The Prophet turned to him, laughed, and ordered a gift to be made
to him.

Verily the Prophet is good and chaste, the best of men in features and
in character. May God pray upon him and upon his followers a prayer
which will never end and never finish.

The Merciful One never created one like to Mahomed.

And to my knowledge never will create one.

He is the sun of mid-day and the moon of mid-month.

He is the emrald among jewels.

His place is one never given to other messengers.

His rank is one never given to other men.

Now, the temperament of youth is evenly balanced. The temperament
of childhood inclines to damp and that of maturity and old age to cold.

The most evenly balanced of the organs is the skin of the tip of the index
finger and after this the tips of the other fingers. The hottest of the organs
is the heart and after that the liver and the flesh. The coldest of all are the
bones and the nerves, the spinal cord and the brain. The driest of all is
bone. The dampest of all is fat.

Next among the seven compoments of the Constitution come the Four
Humours. Of these the most excellent is Blood, which is damp & hot. Its
property is to feed the body. Normal blood is sweet and without smell.
Next comes Phlegm and this is wet & cold. Its property is to convert
blood whenever the body lacks food, to keep the organs damp and to
prevent drying up due to movement. Normal phlegm is phlegm that is
near to changing into blood. Abnormal phlegm is salt or somewhat warm
or sour. It tends to be ripe and insipid. It is unmixed cold.

The third humour is Bile, which is hot & dry, It is stored in the Gall
Bladder. It renders the blood subtle and helps it to pass through the
very narrow channels. Part of it is carried to the bowels and produces the
characteristic colour of the faeces. Normal bile is slightly red. Abnormal
bile may be coloured like the yoke of an egg or coloured like leeks or
verdigris or be inflamed. Rusty bile is more powerful than leek-coloured
and it is a warning of Death. Bile is sometimes known as Yellow Bile.

Finally, there is Spleen. This is cold & dry. It thickens the blood and
feeds the spleen and the bones. Part of it passes to the mouth of the
stomach and sets up a desire for food and causes an acidity. Normal spleen
forms the dregs of the blood. Abnormal spleen is described as inflamed,
that is, impure. Spleen is sometimes called Black Bile.

The fourth component of the Constitution is the Fundamental Organs.

The fifth component is the Spirits.

Folio 7

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 5 1

The sixth is the Faculties and they are three in number — the Natural,
the Vital, and the Psychic.

And the seventh and last component is the Functions and they are
two — the Function of Attraction and the Function of Repulsion.

(b) The State of the Body of Man

The second of the four headings into which Theoretical Medicine is
divided deals with the theory of the State of the Body of Man.

Three states of the Body are possible — health, disease, and a condition
which is neither health nor disease, that is, convalescence and old
age.

Now, health is a physical condition in which all the functions are
healthy. Restoration to health is the best gift of God to Man. It is impos-
sible to act rightly and to pay proper attention to the obedience due to
the Lord except when health is present. There is nothing similar. Let the
worshipper give thanks for his health and never be ungrateful.

Said the Prophet: There are two gifts of which many men are cheated —
health and leisure. Al-Bukhari extracted this tradition.

Said the Prophet: There are worshippers of God whom he protects
from death in battle and from sickness. He makes them to live in good
health and to die in good health, and yet He bestows upon them the seats
of His martyrs.

Said Abu Dard: O Prophet, if I am cured of my sickness and am thankful
for it, is it better than if I were sick and bore it patiently ? And the Prophet
replied: Verily the Prophet loves good health, just as you do.

Tradition says that al-Tirmidhi said: The Prophet said: He who wakes
up in the morning healthy in body and sound in soul and whose daily
bread is assured, he is as one that possesses the world.

Again al-Tirmidhi quotes from Abu Harira that he said that the Prophet
said: The first question put to the worshipper on the Day of the Resur-
rection about the luxuries of the World is: Did I not make you a healthy
body ? And next: Did I not satisfy you with cool water ?

And again he relates that the Prophet said: O ‘Abbas, petition God for
health in this World and the next. Al-Bazar reports this saying.

The Prophet also said: Ask God for forgiveness and health. After
security of faith nothing better is given to a man than good health. This
is told by al-Nasad.

No petition is more pleasing to God than a request for good health is a
saying reported by al-Tirmidhi'.

A certain Bedouin once asked the Prophet, saying: O Prophet of God,
what petition shall I make to God after I have finished the prayer ? And
he replied: Ask for good health.

Among the wise sayings of the Prophet David are the following: Health
is a hidden kingdom. And again: Sadness for one hour ages a man by one
year. And again: Health is a crown on the heads of the healthy, only seen
by the sick. And again: Health is an invisible luxury.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 8

See folio

Folio 9

Some of our ancestors used to say: How many rich gifts has God
placed beneath every vein.

And indeed may God give us health in the Faith in this life and in the
next.

As for Disease, it is a state just the opposite to this. It originates from
want or misdeed or from misfortune.

The third of the four headings into which Theoretical Medicine is
divided deals with the theory of Causes or Aetiology.

Now, the Causes are six. The first of these is Air. Air is essential to
keep the soul evenly balanced. For as long as air remains pure, no debility
is mixed in it and no foul wind. It is an unrecognised protection.

Every season produces diseases compatible with it and expels what is
incompatible. Thus, summer breeds bile and causes bilious diseases, but
cures cold diseases. And the like can be said of the other seasons.

Cold air is strengthening and improves the digestion. Hot air does just
the reverse. A change in the Air is a cause of Pestilence. And if God will,
141 that will be described later.

The second Cause is Food & Drink. When hot, these produce heat in the
body. And vice versa.

The third Cause is Bodily Movement & Rest. Movement breeds warmth
in the body. And vice versa.

The fourth Cause is Emotional Movement & Rest, as occurs in cases of
anger, joy, apprehension, grief, and modesty. These states set the soul
in motion, internally indeed but apparent externally. I will revert to
h these later if God wills.

The fifth Cause is Waking & Sleeping. Sleep causes the soul to bubble
within the body, although it cools the outside. Hence the sleeper requires
some outer garment. Wakefulness is just the reverse of this.

The sixth Cause is Excretion & Retention. A balance between these
protects health.

(d) Signs in a Man

The fourth of the four headings into which Theoretical Medicine is
divided deals with the Theory of Signs.

Black hair and a black body are signs of heat: the opposite a sign of cold.
Similarly, a fat body or a thin body. An excess of flesh is a sign of heat
combined with damp. Excess of fat is a sign of cold combined with damp.
In the same way excessive desire for sleep is a sign of damp, whereas a
diminished desire is a sign of dryness. A moderate desire is the sign of a
balanced temperament.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Similarly the appearance of the organs is a sign. Capacious organs are a
sign of heat and the opposite a sign of coldness. In the same way dreams
show temperaments. The seeing of colours, yellow or red, or flashes of
light, all these are signs of heat. And their opposites are signs of coldness
Again, excess of body odour is a sign of heat: lack of it a sign of cold.

Section II

PRACTICAL RULES OF MEDICINE

(a) Food

Know then that food is taken when required for the continuation of
health. Signs of its requirement are the advent of a sense of smell, a
deficiency of saliva in the mouth, a high colour of the urine with a marked
smell, and an increased desire for food. The opposite to these indicates
that food is not required.

Prolonged abstention from food is wearisome to the body and causes a
drying up of it and a burning of its constitution. Similarly the taking of
food when not required, engenders stupidity and sloth and is one of the
causes of the generation of disease.

Said al-Muwaffiq c Abd-ul-Latif: It is the custom of Indians when they
want food, first to wash or put on a clean outer garment and then to
sprinkle over themselves a pleasant scent and to remain quiet and to
abstain from the sex act and only then to apply themselves to their food.
See Ff. no & 119 Later, if God will, there will come a chapter on what derives from this
chapter.

Let a man eat cold foods in summer and hot in winter. The partaking
of one meal upon another is harmful. So is exercise after a meal. But
Folio 10 exercise before a meal is best of all, just as when taken after it is the worst

of all. Hot food should be corrected with cold, sweet with sour, fat with
salt, and astringent with fat. To have many kinds of food excites the
constitution of a man. To eat with relish is the best of all. To have the
same food several times and to eat with speed produces a loss of appetite
and engenders laziness. A very sour food hurries on old age. The frequent
eating of sweet food relaxes the sexual desires and makes the body
feverish. Salt food dries up and emaciates the body.

It is expedient to stop eating while you still have an appetite for more.
But to keep on abstaining makes the body weak & thin. Nay rather,
abstention in health is like mixing many different foods in disease. Always
choose the best food unless a bad habit has been formed. In this case
it must be given up gradually. He who is accustomed to take improper
food, let him not cease altogether, but let him avoid taking food that
causes fermentation in the stomach and rotten fruit.

To lick the dish helps digestion and increases sexual desires. The
Prophet used to lick his fingers three times after meals. He used to say:
To lick the platter is a request for pardon.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio ii

Folio 12

See Quran 7.31

The Prophet forbade to have at the same meal milk & fish or vinegar &
milk or fruit & milk or lettuce & fish or garlic & onions or dried meat &
fresh meat or things sour & things acid or sumach & vinegar or vinegar &
rice or grapes & excessive eating of brinjals or pomegranites & meat
pudding or two cold dishes or two hot dishes or two windproducing
dishes.

It is expedient to eschew vinegar and fat if the vessel underneath is of
copper. And in the same way cheese and roast meats and hot food if
wrapped in bread or in anything else. This is one of the reasons for the
prohibition of eating anything found dead.

Again, one should avoid uncovered food or uncovered water lest some
poisonous animal has fallen in and one be killed through eating or drinking
it. The Prophet forbade this when he said: Cover your vessels and stop
the mouths of the water-bottles. For verily in a night of the year there
comes down a pestilence which will meet with no uncovered vessel
without falling therein. And indeed in this prohibition of the Prophet
physicians are agreeing. The reference to the heavens is reported by
Muslim.

Whoever eats onions for forty days, his face will become freckled. For
this blame no one but yourself. Whoever of you being of moderate stature
eats salt, he will be afflicted with vitiligo and scabies. And for this blame
no one but yourself. Whoever eats fish & eggs together will become para-
lysed, and for this blame no one but yourself. Whoever has a wet dream
and does not wash before having intercourse, will generate an imbecile or
an epileptic. And for this blame no one but yourself. Whoever eats to
satiety and then enters the hot bath, will become paralysed and for this
blame no one but yourself. Whoever eats oranges by night, he will grow
thin. And for this blame no one but yourself. Whoever gazes into a mirror
by night will become afflicted with facial paralysis. And for this blame no
one but yourself.

Anas reports of the Prophet that he said: The root of every disease is
coldness. And again, it is reported by Ibn Mas'ud that he said: Cold means
a bloody flux, for this cools even the heat of sexual desire.

It is essential that a man confine himself to taking what is suitable and
appetising, but without excess. Said the Prophet: The sons of Adam will
fill no vessel worse than they fill their own stomachs. Let the sons of
Adam take mouthfulls which strengthen the loins. If possible one third
of the stomach is for food, one third for drink, and one third for one-
self. This saying is reported by al-Nasa’i and al-Tirmidhi and it is a fair
and sound tradition.

The following section consists of further observations about Health.

Said ‘Ali ibn al-Hussayn ibn Wafid: God has collected all Medicine
into half a verse when He said: Eat & drink but not to excess.

Said l Umr: Avoid a pot-belly, for it spoils the body, breeds disease, and
renders prayer wearisome. Take to blood-letting for this rectifies the
body. And avoid all excess. For God hates a learned man who is fat.
This is reported by Abu Nu'aim.

Said Hippocrates: The continuation of good health depends upon
moderate labour and the avoidance of a surfeit of eating & drinking. He
also said: A little of what is harmful is better than a lot of what is good.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Folio 13

Folio 14

Said al-Shahrastani in his book entitled Al-Milal wa al-Nihal or The
Book of Religions and Sects: Hippocrates is the founder of Medicine.
And he added: Our ancestors and those who came later prefer him to all.
A certain Greek king sent to him several qantars of gold and asked him
to come & visit him. But he refused. He also used to refuse any fee for
treating the poor or men of middle means. But he stipulated that he
should take from the rich one of three things — a collar of gold of a diadem
or golden bracelets.

When asked what life is the best Hippocrates answered: Safety with
poverty is better than wealth with fear. He also said: Every man should
be treated with herbals from his own country. When he was dying he said:
Recognise one who seeks learning from his much sleep, his mild nature,
his soft skin, and his long life.

He also said: Had Man been created with a single constitution, he
would never have suffered sickness. For then there would have been
nothing in opposition to cause disease.

A physician once visited a sick man and said to him: You, the disease and
I are three. If by hearkening to me you help me, then we shall be two
against one and thus stronger. And when two come against one, they
defeat it.

Hippocrates was once asked: Why does a man when he is dead, weigh
more than when he was alive ? He replied: Once he was made up of two
parts, a light part lifting him up and a heavy part weighing him down.
When one of these went away, and it was the light part that does the
lifting that went, then the heavy part weighs him down yet more.

He once said to one of his students: Let your best means of treating
people be your love for them, your interest in their affairs, your knowledge
of their condition, and your recognised attentiveness to them.

He also said: All excess is against Nature. Let your food, your drink,
your sleep, and your sexual intercourse be all in moderation.

And he said: Any physician who administers a poison or procures an
abortion or prevents a pregnancy or prolongs the disease of a sick man,
this physician is no colleague of mine. On this subject he composed a
well-known oath which I shall discuss later, if God wills.

The books by Hippocrates on Medicine are many. Among them are the
Book of Aphorisms, the Book of Prognostics, and the Kitab Qubra
Buqrat. This last book testifies to many wonders of wonders. When the
tombs of several of the Greek kings were opened, this book was found
inside.

Harith bin Kalada, the physician of the Arabs, was once asked: What
is the best medicine ? He replied: Necessity, that is Hunger. When asked:
What is disease ? He replied: The entry of food upon food.

Said Avicenna: Never take one meal until the one before is digested.

Hot food is to be despised. The Prophet also forbade it. He also forbade
eating while lying down. This was told by al-Bukhari. Abu ibn Ka‘b
explained that this is because it was the custom of tyrants.

It was not the custom of the Prophet to blow upon his food or his drink
or to breathe into a vessel.

Walking after dinner is beneficial. Prayer will replace it, for then food
will rest in the pit of the stomach and digestion will be better.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 15

Folio 1 6

It is related that the Prophet said: Masticate your food with the name
of God and with prayer. And go not to sleep immediately after food, for
this will harden your bowels. This tradition is told by Abu Nu'aim. And
take not violent exercise after food, for this does harm to it. Never omit
to take your dinner, for this makes a man older. Anas reports the following
apochryphal tradition: Eat some dinner, even if it is only a handful of
dry bread, for to omit the evening meal makes one grow old. This was
related by al-Tirmidhi. Similarly Jabir is reported to have said: Never
omit supper, even if it only a handful of dates, for its omission ages a man.
This was related by Ibn Maja.

The hands should be washed clean of the smell of food. The Prophet
used to say: If anyone goes to sleep with hands still smelling of food and
something happens to him, he has no one to blame but himself. The
Prophet used to say: To rinse the hands before food drives aways poverty
and to rinse them after food drives away unhappiness.

Be it known that eating to satiety is something bad which arose after
the first century of Islam. The Prophet used to say: The Believer puts
food into a single stomach, the Unbeliever into seven. Wisdom will not
go into a stomach filled with food. The less a man eats, the less will he
drink. And the less he drinks, the less will he sleep. And the less he sleeps,
the more blessed will be his old age. The more a man eats, the more will
he drink. The more a man drinks, the heavier will he sleep. And he who
sleeps heavily, loses the blessings of old age. If a man is satisfied before
satiety, then the better nourished will his body be and the better will be
the state of himself and of his heart. But the man who is filled with food,
his body will be ill nourished, the state of himself will be bad, and his
heart will grow hard. Avoid therefore excess of food, for it poisons the
heart, slows the members of the body from the obedience due to God
and closes the ears to His admonishments.

Said Plato: One who exposes himself in the open before going to sleep,
verily he will keep the beauty of his complexion. The Prophet indeed
commanded this according to the tradition of al-Barr bin 'Azib when he
said: On going to your place of sleep perform an ablution the same as
before prayer. This is a sound and fair tradition.

(b) Drink

Never drink water immediately after taking food nor when the stomach
is quite empty. He who drinks water drawn from a well, his food will be
well digested. Abstain from very cold water, for it is harmful to the organs
of respiration, especially after a hot meal or after sweet food or after a
hot bath or after sexual intercourse. Do not mix well water with river water.

Never toss down water with a single gulp, for a disease called al-Kabar
is caused by such swallowing. Al-Bayhaqi explains that al-Kabar means
‘pain in the liver’ and ‘a single gulp’ means ‘swallowing by great gulps’.
Anas reports the tradition that the Prophet used to take three breaths with
each drink and used to say that it thereby became more satisfying, more
health-giving, and more thirst-quenching. Anas added: I also used to
take three breaths in a similar manner. Muslim extracted this saying.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Abu Nu‘aim too reports the tradition that whenever the Prophet took a
drink (Sharab), he would pause three times for breath, calling upon the
name of God when he began and praising Him during the pause. The
word ‘Sharab’ here means water, but in the terminology of physicians it
means ‘an intoxicant’.

According to al-Tirmidhi the Prophet used to use the tooth-pick side-
ways and would drink by sucking.

The meaning of the phrase ‘taking a breath’ in the Traditions is drinking
with three pauses for breath and removing the mout from the vessel.

The prohibition of the Prophet against breathing into the vessel means
that it is forbidden to drink and to breathe into a vessel without removing
the vessel from the mouth. For often some saliva may fall into the vessel
and the vessel will be contaminated if this often happens. There is thus
no contradiction between his order and his prohibition.

Verily to ration out one’s water is of very great benefit. This is because
some need may call for the taking of much water because of a violent
thirst and a man cannot be sure of repeated opportunities for drinking
and for reducing his heat. Rationing of one’s water makes this certain.

The benefit of pausing for breath while drinking is as follows. Respira-
tion stops at the moment of swallowing. But the need is urgent both
for water and for breath. So, if a man takes a breath and inhales a drop
of water into the respiratory passage, this will become for him a cause of
suffocation or choking. So, if a man pauses in his drinking to breathe, he
will be safe from this.

But as for the statement about the three breaths, verily there is no need
Folio 17 for more than this. But it is expedient for everyone while drinking to take

three breaths, as did the Prophet. But with regard to the statement that it
is more satisfying, most certainly it is more satisfying for the thirst than
drinking all in one draught. As for it being more health-giving, this is
because if a man drink for that reason, he will be cured of his disease or he
will be cured more quickly if he recovers. As for being more thirst-
quenching or more subtle, this is because it renders digestion easy and
creates an appetite. These are minute points of wisdom and theoretical
truths the telling of which is neglected except by the meticulous. The
wise of olden times and of later times have failed to know them. And
may God be merciful and give peace to this Prophet, the Physician, the
Pure One. May His mercy endure for ever and be without end.

Anas said: The Prophet forbade drinking while standing up. But
al-Khattabi said: This prohibition refers to the quenching of thirst and to
setting a limit thereto. Al-Khattabi allowed a drink to be taken standing,
as also did ‘Umar, <Uthman, ‘All, and a large number of theologians.
Others refused. The Prophet himself drank standing up.

The Prophet forbade the closing of water skins. This means that he
forbade the custom of the kinking of the neck of the water-skin and the
drinking from the cup thus formed. This is reported by al-Bukhari. Said
Bin ‘Abbas: The Prophet forbade drinking from the mouth of the water-
skin. This is related by al-Bukhari. The reason for this prohibition is
because the drinker will not know what will enter his mouth. For these
may be in the water a leech or something else which will stick in his
throat. Such things have been related.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Ibn Maja says on the authority of Bin 4 Abbas that the Prophet possessed
Folio 18 a cup and a flask and used to drink out of these.

Said al-Muwaqqaf ‘Abd-ul-Latif: Glass is the best for a drinking vessel.
The Indians preferred it. Their kings used to drink from glass and prefer-
red it to silver and rubies, for it is less likely to carry dirt and becomes new
again when washed. Dirty water or any dirty drink can be perceived
through it. And it is difficult for a cup-bearer to insert poison into it.
These are its most excellent properties for which the kings of India
chose it.

Know then that moderate exercise is a most potent means of preserving
health. It warms the organs and dissolves waste products and renders
the body light and active. The time for this is after the descent of the food
from the stomach. It accomplishes this in five or six hours, more or less
according to the constitution of the individual and of the food. By moderate
exercise is meant exercise which makes the skin red and glow. When
sweating begins, then it is proper to cease. That which increases the sweat
is called violent exercise.

Every organ is strengthened and enlivened by much exercise. The same
is true of the internal faculties. Whoever wishes to increase his memory
will increase it by memorising. The same things applies to the under-
standing and to thought. So, for every organ there is a specific exercise.
Thus, for the chest there is talk, beginning with whispering and passing
to shouting. For the eyes there are small letters. And for hearing there are
soft, pleasing sounds.

Horse-riding is moderate exercise for the whole body.

The Prophet has proposed for us an exercise which corrects our bodies
Folio 19 arid our hearts, when he said: Raid and you will get rich: travel and you

will get health. And again he said: Fasting brings health. His saying has
already been quoted: Dissolve your food with pious practices and prayer.

A Regime for Sleep

The best time to go to sleep is after the digestion of food. It is wise to
go to sleep first on the right side, as the Prophet used to do. This was
confirmed by <Ayesha when she said: He first used to go to sleep on the
right side looking towards Mecca.

Sleep by day is bad. It damages the complexion, gives rise to diseases
and renders a man lazy. It is to be avoided except in the mid-day heat
according to the saying of the Prophet: Go ye to sleep, for the devils never
sleep. And again he said: Make easier your rising for prayer during the
night by taking a short sleep during the day. He also said: Sleep in the
morning is a hindrance to the daily bread.

Jabir relates that the Prophet forbade a man to sleep part in the sun and
part in the shade. Among the traditions is that he also forbade a man to sit
part in the sun and part in the sahe. These are the statements of al-Hafiz

Folio 20

Folio 21

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 59

abu Nu ‘aim. Abu Dawud has said the same thing in his book called
Al-Sunan.

Said ‘Ayesha: Whoever sleeps in the late afternoon, renders himself
mad and has only himself to blame. Said al-Imam: There is one thing that
is denied to a man and that is sleep in the late afternoon for fear of his
wits. Sleep is forbidden, too, after the dawn prayer until the sun has
risen, and before the late evening prayer. The Prophet hated sleep before
these two times as much as he hated talk after them. But if the talk were
about wisdom or made mention of God or husbandry, it was not hateful
to him.

Sleeping with face to the ground is also forbidden, for such sleep is the
sleep of Hell.

Finally, it is better to go to sleep in a state of ceremonial purity, as has
already been said in the Tradition on Purity.

(d) Excretion

Nature must be softened against what she holds prisoner by such
foods as decoction of carthamus and raisins. Among the excretants which
soften nature against what she holds are dried roses, Syrian cucumber,
Meccan senna, and tamarinds. These should be boiled in honey of wild
bees. All the aboven are well tried.

Excretion through Coitus

Jabir relates a traditional saying of the Prophet: Go take as wife a
virgin whom you will caress and who will caress you. Said Jabir: The
Prophet forbade the act of love before caressing.

Marriage is among the traditions of the messengers of God.

It is best to have intercourse only after digestion is complete and when
the body is in a mid-state and in a normal condition between heat and
cold, repletion and emptiness. But if a man must commit a fault, then inter-
course on a full stomach is less harmful than refraining from it. Bin
‘Umr never had intercourse except after a meal, it is said.

It is necessary to avoid intercourse when one is fatigued or sad or
disappointed and also after taking medicine. It should only be indulged
in when there is a great desire and only when this desire is provoked
neither by effort nor by erotic ideas or sights. It should be the result
of excess of semen.

Intercourse, if it does not exceed the bounds of moderation, revives the
Inborn Heat, rejoices a man, disposes him to eat, dissipates sad thoughts,
melancholy preoccupations and morose thoughts. More than once sexual
abstinence has produced disease. Intercourse is a safeguard for health.
But immoderate intercourse engenders tremors and palsies and weakens
the faculties and enfeebles vision.

Said the Prophet: Whoever among you is in the power of his sex urge,
let him marry. For marriage lowers the eyes and renders the organs
chaste. This is a sound tradition and is reported by al-Bukhari.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Do not have intercourse with an old woman, with a very young child
Quran n.222 or with a woman in her courses. “If you are asked about menstruation,
say: It is a little harmful; therefore keep aloof from women during their
menstrual discharge and do not go near them, for they are in their flowers”.
For this blood is corrupt blood. It does harm to the sexual organ of a
man, causing ulceration. And verily, I have seen this myself.

Said the Prophet: Do anything rather than commit adultery. And he
who has intercourse with a menstruating woman, he must pay a fine of
one dinar or half one dinar, though some say he need only ask pardon
of God for his fault. The reason underlying this tradition is that a Jew,
when his wife is menstruating, abstains from all intercourse with her,
sets her apart in the house, and makes her eat and drink alone. When the
Prophet learnt of this he said: Except as regards intercourse do everything
differently from the Jews. The curse of God and His anger be upon them.

Never have intercourse with a woman who has had no sexual relations
for a long time nor with a sick woman nor with one whose appearance
displeases you. To lie with a Beloved rejoices the heart.

Folio 22 A man once went and complained to the Prophet that he had very few

children. The Prophet bade him eat eggs. According to Abu Harira the
Prophet complained to the archangel Gabriel that he could not perform
the sexual act often enough. “What is that ?” replied the archangel. “Why
do you not eat harisa ? There is in this pudding the strength of forty
men”.

From Abu RafP comes this saying: I was seated once in the house of
the Prophet. He passed his hand over his head and said: Make use of
henna, the master of all colouring preparations. Henna strengthens the
skin and increases the sexual powers. Anas, too, said: Dye yourself with
henna. Verily henna rejuvenates, renders a man handsome, and compels
him into sexual intercourse.

Among the traditions is that shaving the pubes stimulates intercourse.
Abu Nu'aim relates this tradition.

Among foods excellent for this purpose are peas, onions, meat, eggs,
cocks and sparrows. After these a man should drink fresh milk and then
rest and say his prayers. Similarly, one should eat pine seeds, haricot
beans, turnips, carrots, grapes, asparagus, and pistachio nuts, filberts and
such like. He should abstain from acids and salted foods. To this subject
I will return, God willing, in the section on Simples.

Muslim reports the tradition from Abu Safid that the Prophet said:
If one of you has gone into his wife and desires to approach her again, let
him perform his ablution and then have intercourse again. The prophet
also said: If one of you has gone into his wife and has said: In the name of
Folio 23 God we have put the Devil to flight: so put the Devil to flight from the

benefits that we confer upon us ; then the child that is predestined between
them, will never feel the Devil.

Al-Bukhari passes on the tradition that a man should not give himself
to sleep until he has performed the ablution as ordered by the Prophet
according to the tradition of ‘Ayesha and others. The Prophet was meticul-
ous in his sexual intercourse and he ordered his example to be followed.
He once said: What I love in your world are women and scent and the
sparkle of my eye is prayer. Al-Nasa’i has reported the tradition that he

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

said: Scent is the food of the soul and the soul is the beast of burden for
the faculties of man. Nothing is more helpful than scent after sexual
intercourse.

When he spoke of prayer after the enjoyment of these two prescriptions,
he meant that sexual intercourse disperses the matter of erotic disturbances
and voluptious agitation which destroy the purity of vision and thought
by cutting the path of reflexion and reason and by rendering dim the
sentiments of religion. It is for this reason that physicians have called the
sex urge a madness. And by God it is the commonest of manias, for it
is the most invincible of all things which dominate man.

Said the Prophet: I have never seen anything more able to weaken a
man’s senses and religion and to destroy his judgement than one of you
women. Verily, a man’s judgement disappears by the violence of his lust
and such-like. Therefore it is incumbent upon the servant of God to seek
for pious intentions without which no prayer has merit. The discussions
of the canonists together with the many traditions about the spirit and
evil suggestions are well known. And therefore the Prophet laid down a
rule and has been adamant on this point, citing the traditions of other
messengers of God and of others bearing on the duty of prayer, that the
servant of God must at the time of prayer have a heart free from vain
Folio 24 thoughts and evil inclinations. For only then is prayer perfect.

And afterwards a bath is obligatory.

And God knoweth best.

Physicians have said that to produce a seminal emission by hand causes
distress and weakens the sexual appetite and erections of the penis.
Besides this it is forbidden in Canon Law.

(e) Venesection, Cupping & the Hot Bath, all of which are to be

CLASSED AMONG THE PRESERVERS OF HEALTH

Al-Bukhari has written on this subejct in his chapter on Cupping. The
Prophet has ordained that cupping be performed and has said: There are
no remedies like cupping and the letting of blood. This tradition is pre-
served by al-Bukhari.

It is said that there was once a man who complained to the Prophet
about pain in the head. All that he said in reply was: Be cupped. Nor will
there be pain in the feet if they are stained with henna. This is a tradition
related by Abu Dawud. And many are the traditions on the advantages of
cupping.

Among the stories about bleeding from veins are many which cannot
be denied. The Prophet made Abu bin Ka‘b, the physician, acu-puncture
him and bleed him from a vein. Among traditional sayings are these two:
The best medicine is cupping. And: Cupping purifies the surface of the
body and bleeding from a vein purifies the inside.

Cupping is used in hot countries and venesection in cold. It is essential
to refrain from cupping in the hot bath except when the blood is very
thick. In this case it is good to take a hot bath and be cupped an hour later.
A full stomach is also a contra-indication. The Prophet said: Cupping on
an empty stomach is a medicine, on a full stomach a disease.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Ibn Maja says that he heard Bin ‘Umr say: Benefit is to be sought in
blood. So summon for me a friendly bleeder and let him not be too old or
too young. For I myself have heard the Prophet say: Cupping on an empty
stomach is best, for in it lies healing; but not to do it at all has even more of
safety and wisdom.

Cupping beneath the chin helps pain in the teeth and face. Cupping
on the legs is good for boils on the thighs and for gout and piles and
irritation of the back. The benefits of cupping are even more than I have
stated, even double this. But to apply a cup over a boney prominence
ruins the memory.

It is the manifest opinion of Ahmed that a fee for cupping is abhorrent.
Said Ibn ‘Abbas: I cupped the Prophet and he paid me a fee. Now, if
the Prophet knew that this was evil, he would not have given it. This
tradition was extracted by al-Bukhari.

With regard to the sites for cupping, al-Bukhari says: Said Ibn ‘Abbas:
I cupped the Prophet for a pain in the head. In another tradition he says
it was for hemicrania. But Anas says: The Prophet was cupped “fi il-
akhaz‘ayn wa il-kahal”. Al-Tirmidhf, too, reports this tradition. Now, the
word “akhaz‘ayn” means “the sides of the neck” and “al-kahal” means
“above the top of the neck”. Abu Harira says that Abu Hind cupped the
Prophet on the vertex of the skull. So says Abu Dawud also. Anas says
he was cupped on the top of the foot. So also say al-Tirmidhf and al-
Nasa’f.

With regard to the days upon which cupping is preferred Abu Harira
said: The Prophet said: He who is cupped on the 17th, 19th, or 21st. day
of the month, will be cured of every disease. This is related by Abu Dawud.
As for his saying “cured of every disease”, the reason for this is the
supremacy of blood. Al-Tirmidhf relates almost the same tradition from
Anas.

Abu Bakr used to forbid his family to be cupped on a Tuesday and gave
Folio 26 the Prophet as his authority. He added: On that day blood does not

readily clot.

But I maintain that this prohibition is all very well for cupping in
times of health. But if a man is ill or in dire necessity, one will forget
whether the date is the 17th. or the 20th.

Said al-Jallal: ‘Ismad bin ‘Asim told me that Hanbal had told them that
Ahmed ibn Hanbal used to apply cups at any time when the blood was
violent and at any hour. This is what he said. And al-Bukhari said that
Abu Musa was cupped at night.

Cupping originated in Ispahan.

Doctors say that cupping should be performed when the moon is
waning and venesection when the moon is waxing.

Be it known that venesection if it is carried out in the wrong place or
when not needed, weakens the Faculties and evacuates healthy humours
in addition to injurious ones. Venesection and cupping should be avoided
by those suffering from enteritis, by those convalescent, by the very old,
by those with a weak liver or stomach, by those palsied of face or feet,
and by pregnant, lying-in and menstruous women.

The best times for venesection and cupping are a Monday at any
time or a Tuesday during the daylight according to the season. Spring is

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Folio 27

Quran 3.133
Folio 28

Quran 28.76

Quran 3.169
Quran 10.58

the best season for venesection, excretion by vomiting, for the quietening
of materies morbi and for much sexual indulgence. Summer is the time
for cold foods which destroy bile, for a restricted sexual intercourse, for
avoiding loss of blood, and for greater use of the hot bath. In the autumn
let a man beware of the cool of the early morning and the heat of the mid-
day. Let him also avoid all that creates spleen and let him make greater
use of the hot bath. Let a man meet winter by extra clothes and by strong,
thick foods, such as bread-and-milk broth. Tradition is plentiful in praise
of these things. All this is related by al-Bukhari.

Said the Prophet: Verily ‘Ayesha excels other women as bread-and-milk
broth excels other foods. And he added: There is a blessing in bread-and-
milk broth: see that it contains much meat.

Verily a man should desire a copious flow and an exit of blood and vomit.
And in winter he should increase his movements and his sexual activities.

(f) The Emotions

The body is indeed changed by emotion. The emotions include anger,
joy, apprehension, sorrow, and shame.

With regard to Anger, it warms the body and dries it up. Anger is
forbidden by the Prophet. Al-Bukhari relates that a man once said to the
Prophet: Pray give me some advice. And he replied: Never be angry.
The meaning of this traditional saying is that a man should never act
from motives of anger. A proof of this is the further saying of the Prophet:
Do not reckon as one of you those in a fit of anger. And we said: Is there
any man who does not suffer from fits of anger ? And he replied: No, there
is not. But men there are who master themselves when angry and being
bad tempered train themselves so that anger will not overcome them and
that they will not act under its influence. And this is the meaning of the
saying of the Almighty: Those who restrain their anger. It confirms the
fact of their anger and praises them for their restraint.

When the Prophet was angry, it was evident in his face. He once said:
Anger is from the Devil. And, indeed, the Devil is created from fire. And
because fire is put out by water, so if any of you be angered, then he
must perform an ablution. Abu Dawud relates this.

In the traditional sayings of al-Tirmidhf occurs the statement that anger
is surely carried in the hearts of men. And which of you has not seen the
reddening of the eyes and the swelling of the jugular veins ?

Again among the traditional sayings is this: Verily I know of a sentence
which if a man say his anger will depart: I take refuge in God from the
Devil, the stoned One. This saying is also reported by Muslim.

Now, as for Joy, its property is to strengthen the Innate Heat. If it is
excessive, it may kill a man through the departure of his soul. It has been
said about more than one person that so-and-so died of excess of joy. And
indeed this excess has been prohibited according to the word of the
Almighty: Surely God does not love the exultant. But the joy of the
Faithful is approved and pleasing, as said the Almighty: Rejoicing in what
God has given you out of His grace. And again: Say: in the grace of God
and in His mercy in that they should rejoice.

6 4

CYRIL ELGOOD

But as for Apprehension and Sorrow, they are the commencement of
the Sleeping Fevers. The Prophet used to fly to God for refuge from appre-
hension and sorrow. Tradition says that he who has much of these, his
body becomes sick. This is related by Abu Nu'aim.

Kindly note the difference between Apprehension and Sorrow. The
first implies something that is expected to come or to go. The second
refers to something that has already happened or something that is already
passed.

The Prophet used to fly to God at the end of every prayer to escape
apprehension and sorrow.

Said Ibn ‘Abbas according to a tradition: Let him who suffers much
from cares and affliction say often: There is no power except in God the
Great.

As for Grief, it is associated with the present state of affairs. So a man
who suffers much from grief should busy himself in what makes him
forget himself. So it is said of the Prophet that he said: If affliction press
upon any one of you, let him gird himself with his bow.

Al-Tirmidhi extracted from Abu Harfra the following tradition. The
Folio 29 Prophet, whenever anything worried him, would raise his head to Heaven

and say: Glory be to God, the Great.

And about ‘Abd-Ullah ibn Mas‘ud there is the following tradition. He
used to say: No worshipper who is afflicted with care & grief and who says:
O God, I am your worshipper with a father & mother who worshipped you.
Every thing of mine is in your hands. Precise is your Wisdom and just
are your Decrees. I beg of you by every name by which you style yourself
or that you have sent down into the Holy Book or that you have told to
any one of your Creation or that you have preferred to keep unknown
within your self, I beg of you that you make the Quran the spring of my
heart, the light of my breast, the banisher of my grief, and the remover
of my care. From no one who says this will God fail to drive away grief
and care and set up joy in their stead. This is related by Ahmed in his
al-Masnid and Ibn Habban in his al-Sahfh.

With regard to Shame, this is the emotion felt when a man is ashamed of
himself.

(g) Observation of Habits

Physicians have said that Habit is second nature. Anas said: The Prophet
used to eat after the late last prayer. Abu Nu'aim also says this. ‘Ayesha
relates that he once came into her while she was complaining of something.
He said to her: Man is a medicine and the stomach is a house of Disease.
Let each man eat of what he is accustomed.

‘All said about the stomach that it is a seat of disease and that not
eating is the chief thing in Medicine and that habit is second nature,
Al-Qadi abu Ay'alf relates these sayings.

Is it necessary then to give up food ? Verily hunger is a cure for a
surfeit.

The saying of the Prophet that the stomach is the seat of disease means
that one should eat less and give up the desire for food. But habit is

Folio 30

Folio 31

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 65

like the nature of man, just as habit is called second nature. It is indeed a
great source of strength to the body and is a pillar in the preservation of
health. For this reason the Prophet commanded that every man should
cleave to his habits.

Abu Nu‘aim relates of ‘Ayesha that shes aid: Whenever the Prophet
took to his tent in the winter time, he liked to sleep inside for the first time
on a Thursday night. And when he came out in the summer, he liked to
sleep out for the first time on a Thursday night.

According to physicians the temperament of the soul should follow
the constitution of the body, as has already been said. When the body is
mid-way between hunger & satiety, sleepiness and wakefulness, and a
balance is present, then the soul is brisk and agile and eager for what is
good. But when it is loaded with excesses and extravagancies, then the
soul is distraught. And therefore the Prophet said: I sleep and I get up:
I fast and I break my fast. This is a traditional saying.

Section III

PRINCIPLES OF TREATMENT

One who is given the right to the practice of treatment of Disease, such
a one must pay attention to age, habit, function and trade in his treatment.
It is not easy for him to treat a very old man or a gourmand or a young
child or a person very tired or one in charge of a public bath or one whose
faculties are weak or a hypochondriac or one very weak in body or a very
fat person or a negro or one with an ulcer or anyone in very hot or very
cold weather or one who is already accustomed to taking medicine. And
of these things we have already spoken.

Medicine should not be taken before digestion is complete. Taking a
hot bath before taking medicine aids the medicine. Sleeping after a weak
medicine either stops its action altogether or makes it even weaker. But
after a strong medicine makes its action even stronger.

Avoid eating after taking medicine until it has taken effect.

If a man does not like medicine, let him chew tarragon or vine leaves or
let him smell onion before he takes his medicine. And if he is fearful of
vomiting, let him stretch his limbs to the utmost. Or let him chew bitter
pomegranites or rhubarb or apples. Let one who gets the gripes, drink a
little hot water or walk about a little. And when the medicine has taken
effect, then let him vomit by means of hot water. After vomiting let him
take a few psyllium seeds in apple juice. Then an hour later let him take
some soup.

No man should take two purges on the same day.

For diseases of the brain a man should be bled from the Cephalic Vein,
for diseases of the chest from the Basilic Vein, and from the Median Vein
for both of them. Bleeding from the Salvatella Vein is practiced on the
right side for diseases of the Liver and on the left for diseases of the Spleen.
The Short Saphenous Vein is used for the pain of Sciatica and Gout and
the Long Saphenous Vein for producing a free flow of the menses.

Scarification on the two thighs is almost like venesection. It increases the

CYRIL ELGOOD

menstrual flow. It is performed on the back for ophthalmia, halitosis, and
head-ache.

Enemas are good for colic and stomachache. The time to administer
them is in the cool of the evening and the cool of the morning.

Whenever it is possible to use a light drug, do not make use of some-
thing other. Go from the weak to the stronger, if the weak proves of no
use. Do not content yourself with a single drug in your treatment. For
the constitution of the patient will grow accustomed to it and the benefit
will become less.

If you are in doubt about the diagnosis, do not attack the disease with
any medicine at all until the whole matter is clear.

When a dietary regime alone is sufficient, do not resort to drugs.

Said Hippocrates: Upon the physician may there be the strengthening
of Almighty God and obedience to Him and good council and a remember-
ing of the secrets of disease. Verily he shall not administer any deadly drug
nor indicate it nor point one out. He shall not administer to a woman any
abortefacient. He must be far from all pollution and defilement. He must
not look upon the women-folk. He must not search for excesses, idleing
away his time in pleasure, sleep, eating and drinking or in play. But he
must be eager to give treatment to the poor and to people of poverty.
He must be gentle of speech, soft in talk, and near to God.

This is what Hippocrates said and he not one of the Faithful. I have
already said that this Hippocrates was the Head of the Art of Medicine
and a Leader. He was a Greek physician and their Father. He is held to
be perfection in the Art of Medicine. It is said that the tomb of Hippo-
crates is visited to this day.

Part Two

Section I

PROPERTIES OF FOODS & DRUGS

(a) Simple Drugs

This is how al-Bukhari divided up the subject in his Kitab-ul-Tibb wa
ul-Advia.

Physicians place a medicine in the first degree if it produces no obvious
effect in the body. If it produces an effect but not a harmful effect, it is
classified as being of the second degree. If it produces harm but not
sufficient to kill, it is placed in the third degree. But if it exceeds this, it
is placed in the fourth degree and is called a poison.

The power of a drug is known by experience and by measurement.

The composition of a medicine is either artificial, as in the case of a
theriacum, or natural, as in the case of milk which is composed of water,
cheese and cream.

If a drug is hot to smell, this is a proof of its being hot. If there is no

Folio 33

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

smell, then this is a proof of its being cold. And in-between is in-between.
Furthermore a sweet-tasting drug is hot and similarly a salt-tasting one is
hot. A bitter drug is cold. A greasy drug is one evenly balanced.

Quran 50.7 Said Almighty God: We have made plain the earth and have thrown

into it mountains and have made grow in it all beautiful kinds. And the
“kinds” are full of uses and the “beautiful” are beautiful in colour.

A tradition from al-Hassan through Qatada says: When Solomon had
finished constructing the House, he entered the mosque. And lo, before
him was a tree. When he had completed his prayers, the tree said: Do you
not ask me who I am ? And he said: Yes, who are you ? And the tree said:
I am a tree, such-and such, a remedy for so-and-so. And this and that
come from such and so. Then Solomon ordered that the tree be cut
down. And when he had done so, lo, there was grown up another one
similar to it. And every day that he entered the mosque, he used to see
these trees. Thus he acquired a full knowledge of them and composed
about them his book of Medicine and described the drugs.

There is an apochryphal tradition reported by Ibn ‘Abbas that Solomon
acquired a knowledge of plants as they grew before him. And he said to
one: What is your name ? And he said to another: What are you for ? And
according to the replies, if it was fitting to plant the species, cuttings of it
were replanted. And if it was a drug, he wrote it down. This tradition is
taken from Abu Nu'aim.

Letter A
Atraj — Citron

Folio 34 It is said of the Prophet that he liked to gaze upon a citrus. He said:

The cirtus is like a True Believer, good to taste and good to smell. This is
an accepted tradition extracted by al-Bukhari.

The sour citrus is cold & dry. From this is made orangeade which is
good for hot stomachs. It also strengthens & gladdens the heart, stimulates
the appetite, assuages thirst, satisfies hunger, cuts diarrhoea arising from
the gall bladder, and expels all bilious diarrhoea and palpitations. It
decreases sorrow and emptiness of the soul. It removes inkstains from
clothes and freckles from the face.

The white, solid matter of the citrus fruit is cold & wet and difficult to
digest. It is bad for the stomach and to eat it produces colic.

The seeds, peel, leaves and blossom are hot & dry. The seeds contain
the property of a theriacum. If two miscals of them are ground up and
placed upon the bite of a scorpion, they will be beneficial. If a few miscals
are drunk, they will be useful for all kinds of poisons. The yellow peel is
used for the Citrus Electuary. This is beneficial in cases of colic, strength-
ens sexual desires, and stimulates the appetite. It also dissolves wind
though the leaves are stronger and pleasanter. The scent of citrus corrects
pestilence and corrupt air.

Said Masruq: I entered the tent of ‘Ayesha one day. With her was a
stone-blind man. She was cutting up a citrus for him and he was eating
pieces of it dipped in honey. I said: Who is this ? She replied: This is the

CYRIL ELGOOD

hidden son of my mother who has been given this defect by God and His
Prophet.

Athal — Tamarisk (T. Articulata)

The tamarisk is a large tree. Its leaves resemble those of the other
tamarisk (T. Nilotica) and the fig tree. The seeds are like those of the
species known as al-‘Azaba (T. Gallica). The property of the tamarisk
Folio 35 resembles the properties of gall-nuts.

It is cold & dry in the third degree. It is an astringent for the stomach and
an haemostatic.

Quran 34. 1 6 It has been mentioned by Almighty God.

Athmad — Antimony

This is also called Ispahan Collyrium. Its temperament is cold & dry.
Antimony strengthens the Optic Nerve and preserves the health of the
eye.

Said the Prophet: The best of all collyria is antimony: it glorifies the
sight and makes the hair grow. This saying was extracted by Abu Dawud
and al-Tarmidhf. The latter also quoted another saying: The best of
your collyriums is antimony which protects the healthy eye but not the
diseased eye.

Al-Tarmidhf relates another tradition saying: The Prophet used to have
a vessel in which he kept a collyrium. He used to apply a salve from it
every night three times into this eye and three times into that. A similar
tradition is related by Anas.

The most laudable part of the Ispahan Collyrium is musk.

Said ‘Abd-ul-Latff: Antimony makes the eye-lashes grow and beautifies
the eyes and makes hearts to love them.

Azkhir — Bog-rush

The bog-rush is hot & dry. It is a mild diuretic and emmemagogue. It
dissolves cold swellings if used as a plaster.

The Prophet has made mention of it.

Aruz — Rice

Rice is the most nourishing of grainfood after wheat and excellent in
temperament. Some say it is hot & dry, others say cold & dry. It is binding
for the bowels, but if cooked with milk is less constipating. If taken with
Folio 36 sugar, it will dissolve swellings. Rice makes the body fertile and produces

more semen. To eat of it causes pleasant dreams. Fine rice with the fat
of sheeps’ kidneys is better than a large purge. This is a medical secret.

There is a traditional saying that runs: The Master of your food is meat
and rice comes second.

From ‘Ayesha comes an apochryphal tradition: Rice has curative powers
and contains no sickness within it.

Arak — Aloes-wood

This is the aloes-wood from which the tooth-pick is made.

Said Abu Hanffa: Aloes-wood is the best for the brushing of the teeth,

See also Arak f. 36

Folio 81

See f. 53

IO4

CYRIL ELGOOD

Letter K

Kafur — Camphor

Almighty God has made mention of Camphor in the chapter beginning
“There surely came over man”. The Prophet, too, has mentioned it.

Camphor is cold & dry in the third degree. It checks bleeding from the
nose, strengthens the senses, and decreases the semen. The smell of
camphor renders fat whoever drinks it. The weight of a barley-corn checks
diarrhoea.

Kahruba — Yellow Amber

Yellow Amber is cold & dry. It strengthens the heart. It draws straws to
itself, just like a magnet attracts steel.

Kabath — Fruit of Aloes

Kabath is the name given to the ripe fruit of the arak plant.

It is hot & dry. It strengthens the stomach. Its uses are the same as
those of the arak plant itself.

Said Jabir: We were with the Prophet and we were gathering fruit of the
aloes when he said: Let yours be the black ones. This is an excellent
tradition. It is reported by al-Bukhari and by Muslim.

Kabr — Capers

Capers are resolvents and subtilants and are endowed with many
faculties. They aid spleen.

Bin ‘Abbas reports the following saying: The Prophet came out to us
and said: Hell laughed and there came forth truffles: the Earth laughed and
there came forth capers.

Kabd — Liver

The best of Livers is Chickens’ liver, eaten with vinegar and coriander
seeds. A person with a cold temperament should eat liver with caraway
seeds.

Bin ‘Umr reports the tradition that the Prophet said: Lawful for us are
two dead things and two bloods — the blood of the liver and the blood of
the spleen.

Kutm — Indigo Leaf

The action of indigo leaves resembles that of pepper seed. It excites to
vomiting, but is good for cases of rabies. Mixed with henna it strengthens
the hair.

It has already been described with Henna.

Katan — Flax

This is the coolest of clothing and the least likely to breed lice. The
smoke of it dissolves catarrh.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

105

Karafs — Parsley

Parsley is hot & dry. It stimulates sexual intercourse in both men and
women. If animals eat it, their offspring is not born foolish and witless.
Anyone who fears a scorpion bite should eat it, for it opens obstructions.

Traditions says that whosoever eats parsley and then goes to sleep, his
breath will be sweet smelling and he will be free from toothache.

Kurrath — Leek

Leeks if cooked with meat rid it of greasiness. But the eating of them
engenders nightmare and causes dimness of vision.

Tradition says that to eat leeks and then go to bed protects a man
from piles. No king will receive a man who has eaten leeks. This tradition
is reported by the author of al-Wasila.

Kara* — Shins

Ox shins yield a liquid that is thick, pleasing and laudable with very
little waste matter. It is good for the spitting of blood and for a cough.

Said the Prophet: If I were invited even to eat shins, I would not refuse.

Karam — Grape vine

Folio 82 The uses of the knotty parts whence the flowers spring, resemble those

of the palm tree. Tradition says that the branches of the vine are like
those of the palm tree and that the vine is the sister of the palm.

The temperament of the vine is cold & dry. Used as a plaster it is good
for hot swellings.

Said the Prophet: Let none of you call the grape (al-'anab) a vine (al-
karam). For the vine is a Moslem. But call the grape (al-'anab) the offspring
of the branch of the vine (al-hablat) and call the branches of the vine as a
whole the vine (al-karam).

Kamun — Cummin

Cummin is hot. It dissolves colic and drives away wind. If soaked in
vinegar and then eaten, the desire for clay and soil is removed.

Tradition says that nothing enters the belly and does not suffer change
excepting cummin.

Kama’t — Truffle

Truffles are cold & dry. The best kind are jug-shaped. Doctors agree
that a soup of truffles furbishes vision.

Said the Prophet: Truffles are a manna of manna; truffle soup cures
sick eyes. Al-Bukharf and Muslim extracted this tradition.

The word al-Kama’t is a collective term. A single truffle is called al-
Kam, though at times the word al-Kama’t is used for a single truffle.
In this case the plural form is al-Kamwa’t. It is named ‘kam’ from the
word ‘kamm’, meaning ‘to conceal’, because it is hidden in the earth.
Just in the same way we say ‘kammaha’ or ‘he has concealed it’, meaning
‘one who has concealed his testimony’.

Traditions says that truffles are a small pox of the earth. They are also

Folio 83

106 CYRIL ELGOOD

called Daughters of Thunder because they grow more plentifully when
there is much thunder in the air.

It is said that the food of the Children of Israel in the wilderness was
truffles which took the place of bread for them. They also eat quails with
manna. Now manna was a sweet dew. And so their cooked food was made
perfect for them.

The saying of the Prophet ‘manna of manna’ means whatever comes
from God to His servants without any toil or labour, with no need for
ploughing or watering. Just that and nothing else.

Said Abu Harira: I took three, five or seven truffles and squeezed them
and then set the juice in a beaker. With this I anointed the eyes of a maid-
servant of mine and I cured her.

Letter L

Liban — Frankincense

Said ‘Abd ibn Mervan: There are three things which can be found only
in the Yemen and the country of the Yemen is full of them — frankincense,
saffron, and striped Yemeni cloth.

Said Dioscorides: The best incense is the male, round variety, mixed
with the heart of the Moroccan pine. The gum does not catch fire. The
pine indeed smokes, but the incense burns without smoke.

Incense is hot in the second degree and dry in the first. It is full of uses
and rarely causes harm. It helps pain in the stomach, drives away wind,
causes new tissue to grow in an ulcer when used as a plaster, dries up
phlegm if eaten, and furbishes the eye when used as a collyrium. If chewed
with thyme, it helps tongue-tie. When eaten it increases the understanding.
The vapour is good in time of pestilence for it sweetens the air and increases
the defences. With black olives and hearts of pistachio nuts it makes a
good breakfast although it engenders thirst. And with confection of roses
it is good for all sorts of urinary affections and for bed wetting.

The following traditions about incense are current. An unauthenticated
saying of Anas is: Fumigate your houses with frankincense and thyme.
Another ascribed to ‘All runs: A certain man complained to him of forget-
fulness. He replied: Use frankincense, for verily it strengthens the heart
and drives away forgetfulness. And from Ibn ‘Abbas comes this: Take a
miscal of frankincense and a miscal of sugar. Let a man make these into a
powder and swallow it seven times on an empty stomach. So he will
benefit his urinary troubles and his forgetfulness.

Tradition says that the Prophet said: Feed your pregnant women on
incense. Then verily the child in the belly will be a man and strong of
heart. And should the child be a girl, her figure will be beautiful and her
hips wide. Abu Nu‘aim reports this tradition.

If frankincense is soaked and the fluid in which it is soaked is drunk
on an empty stomach, forgetfulness will depart.

Slight amnesia is due to cold. The type that is due to dryness is recogn-
ised by its being preceeded by insomnia. The treatment for this kind of
forgetfulness is the use of damp-producing remedies.

Folio 84

Quran 47-15
Quran 16.66

Folio 85

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET IO7

Forgetfulness is caused by the following: scarification on the nape of the
neck, the eating of green coriander and of sour apples, much indulgence
in grief, the reading of epitaphs on tombstones, gazing upon stagnant
water and upon urine, the using of urine to perform one’s religious
obligations (a practice forbidden by the Prophet), the gazing upon a
crucified person, walking between two camels tied head to tail as they
walk along the road, the absence of infestation of the head by lice, and
finally the eating of food which has been chewed by a mouse.

Laban — Milk

Said Almighty God (and ever to be honoured is the Sayer): Rivers of
milk the taste whereof does not change. And again He said: Pure milk,
easy and agreeable to swallow for those who drink.

Said the Prophet: To whosoever God has given milk, let him say:
Blessqjd be God in it, and may He give us more, for I know that no food
and no drink can replace it. This saying is reported by Abu Dawud and
al-Tirmidhi, deriving it from Ibn ‘Abbas. And from Ibn ‘Abbas also
comes the tradition that the Prophet loved milk.

Be it known that milk is a composition of water, fat and cheese. The
cheese is cold and damp and forms a thick food. The fat is wholesome for
the body. The watery part is hot and damp and is attenuant to the con-
stitution.

Fresh milk is hot & damp: sour milk is cold & damp. The best fresh milk
is human milk, drunk direct from the breast.

Every milk after its set period of freshness changes its taste and becomes
sour. Hence Almighty God described the milk of Paradise by the words
“which never changes”.

Every animal whose pregnancy lasts longer that that of a woman, verily
its milk is bad.

Fresh milk provides chyme. It purifies the body, increases the semen,
and excites to sexual intercourse. Milk relaxes the bowels, helps the
depressed, and increases the brain even though it contains wind. But too
much milk engenders lice. Taken with sugar milk beautifies the comple-
xion and causes plumpness. It allays simple pruritus and scabies. It also
strengthens the memory. Every single milk filters off water, except that of
the she-camel. Hence the use of milk in cases of dropsy.

From Anas comes the following story. The people of ‘Akal or ‘Arayna
were on the move. When they entered al-Medina they were suffering
from a disease known as al-Hawi. So the Prophet ordered for them some
she-camels and bade them drink their urine and their milk. And they went
away when they were well.

The above tradition is extracted by al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud,
al-Tirmidhi, al-Sina’i and Ibn Maja. In the version of Muslim the affected
persons numbered between three and nine. Some versions say eight
persons. Anyhow it is to be noted that al-Hawi is a disease of the belly.
And further more ‘Akal is the name of a tribe and ‘Arayna is the name of a
branch of the tribe of Buhayla. And by a she-camel is meant a camel in
milk. In a version of Qatada derived from Anas it is stated that a troop
of the people of ‘Arayna went to the Prophet and said: We have infected the
town with al-Hawi and our bellies have grown big. So runs the tradition.

io8

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 86

Folio 87

Now milk itself does not put dropsy right. A cold materies morbi dis-
solves the organs and makes them shrink. One of three kinds of dropsy
then evolves. These three kinds are known as Anasarca, as Ascites or as
Tympanites. In milk there is a cleansing and softening effect on the bowel
and a diuresis of the water results, more effective even than artemisia
or reeds or camomile and many other drugs used in cases of dropsy.

So this remedy is one of the best there is and is very beneficial. There
is no medicine like it for this particular disease. Nor does this disease
ever occur except in some kind of disaster in the liver. And if a man stops
taking water and food and drinks milk instead, he will surely be cured.
This is a matter of experience. As for the use of urine, the best urine is
that of the Arabian camel. In the Traditions there is proof of the purity
of urine, for it does not devour flesh.

From Ibn ‘Abbas comes the statement that the Prophet used to drink
milk and then rinse out his mouth saying that the fat of the milk was bad
for the feverish and for those who suffer from a headache. This is a
tradition extracted by al- Bukhari and Muslim. The Prophet has confirmed
that the fat of milk is the worst possible thing for the feverish and those
with a headache because of the rapidity with which it is converted into
bile. Physicians, too, are agreed that milk should be avoided by those with
fever or a headache.

Stale milk is thicker and damper than fresh milk and contains a greasiness
except in the case of goats’ milk. There was once brought to the Prophet
some fresh milk and some stale milk mixed with water. He drank the
former and said: Here is good fortune and security. Al-Bukhari extracted
this tradition.

Goats’ milk is subtle in moderation. It relaxes the bowels. It dampens
and benefits cases of tuberculosis, which is a disease of the chest. Cows’
milk lies mid-way between the milk of a sheep and the milk of a goat as
regards thinness and thickness. It is a good food and produces fatness.
The Prophet called attention to its usefulness when he said: Drink cows’
milk, for it is a healing and a fattening remedy. And according to Ibn
Mas'ud he also said: God did not bring down any disease without also
creating a remedy for it; so drink the milk of cows, for cows feed off all the
kinds of plants. This tradition was related by al-Nasa’i. “To feed”
means, of course, “to eat”.

Now this above tradition contains two doctrines. The first is that God
has sent down no disease without sending down a remedy for it. Hence it
follows that Man should make use of his faculties and employ his energy
in the learning of Medicine. For if he knows that there is a possibility of a
cure for every disease and that a remedy exists for every disease, then
surely he will be desirous of learning it. Indeed the protection of health
is the most noble of objectives, as has already been said. And to this end
all the commandments of religion and of this World tend.

The second doctrine calls attention to the many advantages of these
milks. For the Prophet said: “So drink” in order to emphasise and excite
us. And this proves that in milk there are various benefits for various
diseases. But the Prophet was not satisfied with the mere statement but
added the exact reason when he said: “for the cow feeds off all the kinds of
plants”. For milks differ according to the varities of fodder of the animals.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Folio 88

Quran 52.22

IO9

A hot pasture produces a hot milk and a cold pasture a cold milk, and so
forth. When the Prophet used the words “feeds off”, he implied that
there are different milks for different diseases. And if indeed there are
these differences in milks, then how accurate is his saying about their
usefulness among the multiplicity of drugs. How excellent and how
consoling is this verdict and this epitome.

The milk of a camel is more glistening and less fatty and more inclined
to cause loose stools. It does not curdle in the stomach. It is very good for
sufferers from gastritis due to weakness of the liver.

Said the Prophet: Verily, in the urine of a camel and in its milk is the
cure for the gastric troubles of their bellies.

Among the peculiarities of camels’ milk is the fact that mice do not
drink it. From Abu Harira comes the tradition that the women of the
Children of Israel lost their fear of mice because if mice found goats’
milk they would drink it, but if they found camels’ milk they would not.
Al-Bukhari and Muslim extracted this tradition. The Jews do not eat
the meat of camels nor do they drink their milk.

As for acid milk, it does harm to a cold stomach because of its coldness
and its dryness. But it benefits a hot stomach and stimulates hot tempera-
ments to sexual intercourse.

As for biestings, by which is meant the first milk after delivery, this
renders the body moist and fertile. It is quick to undergo change and is
rectified by honey.

As for soured milk, the most excellent is that made from cows’ milk.

The milk of buffaloes contains much heat. It is said that it has the
peculiarity that no crawling creature will approach it.

Lahm — Meat

Said Almighty God: And we will aid them with fruit and flesh, such as
they desire.

According to Burayda the best associate with bread both in this World
and the next is meat.

And from Abu Darda comes the tradition that the Lord of the food
of the people of this World and of the people of Paradise is meat.

Ibn Maja and Abu Harira report the tradition that the Prophet once
said: The heart rejoices in the eating of meat. And ‘All said: Take meat and
eat it because it beautifies the features and clears the complexion. Of ‘All
also the saying is quoted: Meat from meat; whosoever eats not meat for
forty consecutive days will waste away. A tradition also says that whoever
eats meat on forty consecutive days, his heart will harden. It is therefore
recommended to eat meat on alternate days throughout the year and on
the other days to abstain from it. I think that this advice comes from ( Umr.

Physicians say that meat is the most nutritious of foods, making the
body fruitful and strong.

The most desireable of all meat is mutton which is hot & damp. The
best is that of a yearling. Meat of an aged or emaciated beast is bad.
Dark meat is least heavy. The meat of the male animal is excellent and the
best part of that is the hind- and fore-quarters.

Among the sound traditions are the following:

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 89

Folio 90

1. A shoulder of mutton was presented to the Prophet and he used to
like this joint.

2. Said Bin ‘Abbas: The Prophet used to like meat and I used to bring
to him the shoulder and adjacent parts. A similar report comes from
Abu Harira.

3. Mujahid relates the tradition that the best part of a she-goat in the
eyes of the Prophet was the forequarter. It is said that the worst part
of the animal is the head and entrails. The meat of the neck is
delicious and quick to be digested.

4. A tradition says that in the opinion of the Prophet the breast of a
she-goat and its adjacent parts are the best parts and the least harmful.
This tradition is reported by Abu ‘Ubayda.

5. The meat of the back is a good food and generates laudable blood.
According to a tradition related by Ibn Maja the best meat in the eyes
of the Prophet is the meat of the back.

Roast meat is the driest and boiled meat the wettest.

Said Galen who was the mother of the Art of Medicine: The best
meat is boiled meat. The fat and the suet are bad and contain but little
nourishment. Meat from the right side is lighter and better than that
from the left.

Said the Prophet: Nibble your meat, for so it becomes more digestible
and more wholesome. In another version of the same tradition he is said
to have said: It becomes more desirous and more wholesome. Abu Dawud
reports this tradition.

Abu Dawud also verified the story about the Prophet that he eat some
of the shoulder of a she-goat and then stood up to pray without making
an ablution.

Said Nafi‘: ‘Abd-Ullah used to give up meat sometimes for a month
on end, but in the month of Ramazan he would never deny himself of it.

Said Mohamed bin Wasa‘: Eat meat, for it improves the sight. Said
al-Zuhri: Eat meat, for it magnifies the strength seventy times.

The flesh of a goat is at its best when the animal is two years old. Then
it has but a slight heat within it and it is dry. It generates excellent
humours. Goats flesh is at its worst when it is exceedingly dry, for then
it is difficult to digest and it generates spleen. They also say that it breeds
anxiety of mind and forgetfulness. The meat of the she-goat is better than
that of the male.

Said the Prophet: Be kind to goats and keep away from them, for indeed
the goat is one of the animals of Paradise. Ths Tradition is related by
al-Nasafi'.

The flesh of a kid is evenly balanced, especially that of a sucking kid.
It is quick to be digested and has a minimum of waste.

Beef inclines to coldness and dryness and is hard to digest. It generates
spleen. It is better eaten as veal.

From Suhi'b comes the statement: You must drink cows’ milk, for it is a
cure.

The fat of beef is a medicine. It is best eaten with pepper and
cinnamon.

Horse flesh is hot, dry, thick, and harmful. Its use as a food is disputed.
But it is correct to say that the Prophet on the day of the battle of Khavbar

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

III

made unlawful the eating of the flesh of the domestic ass, but permitted
the eating of horse flesh.

Camel flesh is hot & dry and generates spleen. That of the young camel
is the best. Camel meat is fatty, greasy and stinking. Avicenna says that
the flesh of camels, horses, and asses is the worst of all meats. And indeed
the Prophet has made obligatory an ablution upon anyone who has eaten
the flesh of the wild ass. He has also forbidden the eating of the flesh of
beasts of prey that possess a canine tooth and of birds which possess
hooked talons.

As for the flesh of birds, the less eaten the better, for it breeds fevers.

There is a tradition that the Prophet said: O you people, as for meat
verily it produces an addiction like the addiction of wine. This tradition
is reported by al-Malik in his book known as al-Muwatta or The Levelled
Path.

Lisan-ul- c Asfur — Ash Tree Seeds

These seeds contain heat. They strengthen the heart, benefit palpita-
tions, and soothe the pains of the major organs. They also enter into
the composition of certain decoctions and infusions.

Lisan-ul-Haml — Plaintain

The Plaintain is cold & dry. It checks haemorrhage. From it is made a
syrup.

Luft — Turnip

See Folio 68 Please turn back to letter Sh and see Shaljam.

Loz — Almonds

Sweet almonds help a cough and make it moist. Bitter almonds are hot
and break up stone.

‘Ayesha reports the following: The Prophet was brought a dish of
barley and almonds, but he refused it saying: This is the drink of tyrants
and of those who will come after me.

Lu’lu’ — Pearls

Pearls are evenly balanced between heat and cold and between dryness
and dampness.

They are beneficial for palpitations, terrors and fear. A collyrium made
from them dries up moisture in the eyes. To hold pearls in the mouth
strengthens the heart.

See Quran 55.22 Almighty God has made mention of them.

Li'mun — Limes

The peel and the seeds are hot & dry, but the leaf is cold. If used with
sugar, limes protect the health, cut phlegm, destroy bile, and augment the

Folio 91 appetite. To drink lime juice checks vomiting and nausea.

1 12

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 9 2

See f. no

Letter M
Ma’ — Water

They say that the Prophet said: The best drink in this World and the
next is water.

Water is wet & cold. It existinguishes heat and preserves the original
damp of the body. It helps the food and brings about its entry into the
veins. The perfection of food is made complete only by it.

The best water is flowing water, facing east and exposed to the air.
Next best is one facing the north. Water passing over soil is better than
one passing over stones. Flowing water is the best of all. The quality
of water is proved by its purity, the absence of smell and taste, by its
lightness, by the distance away of its source, and by its depth. The water
of the Nile contains most of these virtues.

Said Avicenna: The water of the Nile is surpassing praise in four
respects — the distance away of its source, the excellence of its channel,
its flow being towards the north, and its great volume. At those time it was
the best water. Similar to it is the water of the Euphrates.

Said the Prophet: The rivers Jaxartes, Bactrus, Nile and Euphrates are
among the rivers of Paradise.

Said Hippocrates, the teacher of Galen and a master of all arts: Avoid
drinking when the stomach is either quite full or quite empty, except of
necessity.

Water that has stood all night is excellent because of its freedom from
mud and such-like. When the Prophet was given water to drink he used
to choose water that had stood some time. Said Jabir: Once the Prophet
was thirsty and said: If you have any water that has stood in a leather or
earthen vessel, I will drink of it; but otherwise I will drink direct. Al-
Bukhari reports this tradition.

Said the Prophet: They covered their vessels and fastened up their
leather waterbottles. In any year there is a night when a pestilence des-
cends from Heaven. If it pass by a vessel that has no cover or a leather
waterbottle that has no stopper, then surely some of that pestilence will
drop into it. This saying is related by Muslim. Said al-Layth ul-'Ajam:
Amongst us they guard against that night in the year during the month
of December. Muslim reports this saying too.

Verily you should avoid very cold water, for it harms a man and brings
on hoarseness and a cough. Constant use of very cold water breeds bloody
eruptions, catarrhs, and pains in the chest. But on the other hand it is
good for the rising of vapours to the head and exstinguishes the heat
of burning fevers. God willing this subject will be further dealt with in the
chapter on The Cure of Fever.

Exceeding hot water quietens sexual desires, relaxes the stomach, dis-
solves and ruins the digestion, while at the same time it is a rectifier for
the aged and those afflicted with a cold epilepsy and headache.

Said Ibn ‘Abbas: He who washes with water heated by the sun and
then acquires the white patches of leprosy, has only himself to blame.
Those who have a knowledge of the sayings of the Prophet state that this
tradition has no corroboration.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

“3

Quran 50.9

Folio 93

See f. 71

The Quran does
not actually state
that red coral is
the best. But in
55.58 coral is
bracketed with ru-
bies, which may
be the justification
for this statement.

Quran 83.25

Rain water is the best of waters and most subtle. It is good for many
diseases because it is light and abounding in good. For God Himself
said: We have sent down from the cloud water abounding in good.

Water is bad which runs under the earth and through grass. Water
from a well is only slightly subtle. Stagnant water is the worst of all.

The very best water is the water of Zamzam. According to the Prophet
the water of Zamzam is a water for drinking. It has the finest flavour
and cures sickness. Al- Bukhari and Muslim report this tradition.

Finally well water and channelled water being without sun and air
are heavy and not nice because they are, as it were, confined or imprisoned.
But the worst kind of water is the water that flows through lead and through
ice. For the cold of both of these has the property of a smokey heat.

Mash — Beans

Beans are cold & damp. Their temperament is laudable. They are good
for coughs. They are to be reckoned among the excellent foods.

Ma’-ul-Ward — Rose-water

Rose-water of Nisibis is cold. It is good for palpitations and quietens
hot headaches. Ten drachms of it by weight are enough for aspersing
ten assemblies. But if sprinkled over the head, it hastens greying of the
hair.

We have already quoted the saying of the Prophet that scent should
never be refused and that he himself liked scent.

Mahmuda — Scammony

Scammony is hot & dry in the third degree. It sets up a flow of bile.
It retains this property for thirty or forty years.

Marjan — Coral

Almighty God has said that the best coral is the red coral. It is cold &
dry. It acts powerfully on the heart, is good for palpitations, and is a
carminative.

Marzanjush — Sweet Majoram

Sweet majoram is hot & dry. It opens obstructions in the brain and
dissolves catarrh.

Said Anas: The Prophet once said: Yours be sweet majoram, for it is
most excellent for loss of the power to smell.

Misk — Musk

Said Almighty God: Sealed and the sealing of it is with musk.

Musk is hot & dry. It strengthens the heart. Musk is the noblest of
scents. It is excellent for cold temperaments. It strengthens the internal
organs when taken as a drink and when smelt is excellent for fainting
attacks and for palpitations. It banishes wind and removes the effect of
poisons.

The Prophet used to perfume himself with this scent. ‘Ayesha, too,

CYRIL ELGOOD

II 4

used to perfume him with it when he solemnly adopted the status of
a pilgrim and again when he put it off.

Abu Sah'd reports an uncorroborated saying: Musk is the best scent.
Muslim reports this tradition.

Menstruating women when clean, repel with musk the effect of the
blood.

It is reported that the Prophet used to call for this scent on Fridays.
And he gave orders for the use of this scent and of a hot bath on Fridays.

In musk there exists a rectification of the essential composition of air,
especially in times of pestilence.

The use of musk as a medicine is lawful.

Musk comes from the navel of a wild animal which resembles a deer
Folio 94 and has two curved canine teeth which look like horns. The best musk

deer are found in Khorasan. The next best come from China and after
that from India.

Mishmish — Apricot

The apricot is cold & damp. It becomes rotten very quickly. Dried
apricots soaked in water relieve thirst. They are the most suitable of all
plums for the stomach. They are used dried and then soaked in water.

Mastaki — Mastich

Mastich is hot & dry. It hurries along phlegm, strengthens the stomach,
rouses the sexual appetite, sets the bowels in motion, and beautifies the
complexion. If chewed before taking medicine, it will prevent vomiting
Combined with oil of roses it soothes pain that lies deep in the stomach.

M agh afir

This is a substance resembling honey, like manna and gum. People
prepare it for eating with stones. It is found on a tree called Ramas and
also on a tree called ‘Ashar. The gum exuded by the ‘ashar tree is called
Sugar of ‘Ashhar.

See f. 75 Maghafir is mentioned in the Traditions. In this book ‘Ashar has

been described under the letter ‘ain.

Massalah Milah — Rectified Salt

Rectified salt is hot & dry in the third degree. Moderate use of it beauti-
fies the colour of the skin. It sets up a flow, excites to vomiting, and
stimulates the appetite. Immoderate use of it generates itch.

There is a tradition that the Prophet said: The Lord of your dish is salt.
This saying is reported by Ibn Maja.

From Ibn Mas'ud comes the tradition that while the Prophet was
praying, when he was making a prostration, a scorpion bit him on the
finger and made off. Said the Prophet: The curse of God be upon the
scorpion which respects not the prophets nor any one else. Then he was
treated with draughts of water and salt and they soaked the place of the
bite in salt and water. Then they recited the verse of the Quran “Say, God
Quran 112.1 is one” and the two terminal chapters until the condition subsided. This
story is reported by Bin ‘Ah' Shayba. At the very least this teaches the
value of salt in the bites of scorpions and other animals.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Said Avicenna: Verily salt should be used as a paste together with
FoIio 95 linseed for the poison of scorpions, for it is an antidote for both hot and

cold poisons. It attracts the poison and then dissolves it.

And from Abu Amama comes this uncorroborated tradition: If a man
at evening time says “The praise of God upon Noah in the two Worlds”,
then no scorpion will bite him that night. The tradition reported by
Abu Harfra is well known. Reports Muslim: If you say at evening time
“I take refuge in the evening time in the perfect words of God against
the evil which has been created”, then no harm will come to you.

Salt preserves meat and does not permit in it putrefaction or stink.
Salt rectifies food and rectifies solids, being able even to correct gold and
silver. For it turns gold yellow and silver white.

In the Ma'alim-ul-Tazayyal occurs the following tradition, quoting
( Umr: Verily God sent down four blessings from Heaven-iron, fire, water
and salt.

Moz — Banana

Bananas are hot & damp in the first degree. Their value as a food is small.
People with a cold temperament eat them with honey.

Some people say that the word ‘talah’ also means ‘banana’, but more
correctly it means the fruit of the palm tree.

Letter N
Narjil — Coconut

This is also called Juz-ul-Hind. It is hot & wet. The best kind which
is white, increases the sexual powers and gives relief to pain in the back.

Nabaq — Jujube

This is the fruit of the Sidr or Lote Tree. It resembles a medlar.

The Jujube is cold & dry. It preserves the temperament and tans the
stomach.

In the book on Medicine of Abu Nu'aim is recorded the apochryphal
tradition that when Adam was thrown down upon the Earth, the first
fruit that he eat was the jujube.

Nakhala — Wheaten Bran

Folio 96 Wheat is hot when cooked. It is good for chests and coughs. Combined

with radish leaves it soothes the pain caused by a scorpion bite.

See also Taia< f. 70 Nakhal — Palm Tree

Quran 55-68 etc. Almighty God has made mention of this tree.

The leaves of the palmtree are drying and dessicating.

Naranj — Orange

To smell the scent of oranges strengthens the heart and to drink one
miscal of the peel helps cases of scorpion bites and of other biting insects.

CYRIL ELGOOD

The juice benefits inflammation of the stomach and drives out ticks
from the hair.

The temperament of the peel, the pips, and the juice are all the same
as the temperament of the orange itself.

If the peel is boiled in olive oil, it helps scaliness of the legs and loss
of hair.

Nar — Fire

Quran 9.81 etc. Almighty God has made mention of Fire.

Fire is hot & dry in the extreme limit of the fourth degree. It is good
for all chronic diseases and cauterisation will help them. This will be
discussed later, God willing.

Narjis — Narcissus

The narcissus is hot & dry. To smell it helps obstructions in the brain
and benefits epilopsy. The root excites vomiting.

An uncorroborated tradition runs: Yours be the seeds of narcissus,
for in the heart are the seeds of madness, leprosy and vitiligo which
nothing can blot out except narcissus seeds.

N c ana c — Mint

Mint is hot & dry. It is the most subtle of all pot herbs. It strengthens
the stomach, soothes hiccup, aids sexual intercourse, and if placed in
milk prevents it turning into cheese.

Nura — Lime Depilatory

A Lime Depilatory is made from the plaster which is used for splinting
and from arsenic. A third of the arsenic is mixed with water and then
placed in the sun or in a hot bath. When it turns blue, it should be smeared
on quickly and then washed off again.

Umm Salma repeats the tradition that when the Prophet made use
of a depilatory, he would begin with his private parts. Bin Maja has
extracted this tradition. Abu Musa reports an uncorroborated tradition
that a Lime Depilatory used to be prepared for Solomon the son of
David before he took his bath.

The site of depilation should be anointed with henna. It is also said
that the use of henna after depilation protects against the disfigurements
of leprosy.

Tradition says that the Prophet was in the habit of using a Lime Depi-
Foiio 97 latory and once said: Do you too make use of it.

The sharpness of the depilatory can be removeed by earth, vinegar
or rose-water.

Nufar — Water-lily

The water-lily is cold & damp. It brings on sleep and soothes head-
aches. Excessive smelling of it produces langour of the brain, coagulates
the semen, and quietens the desire for sexual intercourse. A draught of
it when quite pure, helps a cough and is not converted into bile.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Quran 27.18

Quran 27.20

Folio 98

117

Namam — Wild Thyme

Wild Thyme is hot & dry. It is good for a hiccup that is due to repletion.

Namal — Ants

Almighty God made mention of ants when He said: O Ants, enter
into your houses.

Ants pounded up prevent the growth of hair if applied to the eye-lids.
And if ants are attached to a patch of vitiligo, the vitiligo will disappear.

Letter H

Hudhud — Hoopoe Bird or Lapwing

It is written in a book called Kitab-ul-Khwas that one of the attributes
of this bird is that if it is tied to a forgetful person, he will remember
what he has forgotten. If a man carry about with him one of these birds,
he will surely conquer his enemy. If one is smelt by a person under
an enchantment or spell-bound by a witch, he will gain release. Its flesh
when cooked is good for men. But I myself maintain that the greater
part of these attributes is untrue.

Almighty God has spoken of this bird.

Halyun — Asparagus

Asparagus is hot & wet. It opens obstructions in the kidneys, helps
pain in the back, increases the semen, and eases a woman in labour.
It is said that if dogs eat of a dish containing asparagus, it will kill them.

Hallilaj — Myrobalan

There are three species of myrobalan: the yellow, the chebulic, and
the Indian. Other varieties are classified as one of these.

Myrobalan is cold & dry. Yellow myrobalan sets up a flow of bile,
chebulic of phlegm, and Indian of spleen, when used as a decoction or
as an infusion. The seeds and the electuaries and the yellow seeds cool
the heat of the mouth. The chebulic myrobalan made into a syrup with
honey increases the semen and hastens the appearance of white hair.
It is good for the aged and stimulates the sexual appetite.

Tradition says that the myrobalan is one of the trees of Paradise. In
it resides the cure of seventy diseases.

Hindiba — Endive

The endive changes its temperament according to the season. In summer
it is hot, in winter cold. Its powers fall to naught at the end of each season.
It prevents both hot and cold diseases of the liver. It causes to disappear
the flatulence produced by vinegar and by sugar. It is used in decoctions
and in the syrup of dodder.

A traditional saying is as follows: Eat endives and do not belch, for
verily there is not one single day that drops of the water of Paradise
do not fall upon them. So says Abu Nu^im.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Letter W
Ward — Rose

Roses are cold & dry in the second degree. A hot confection streng-
thens the stomach and aids digestion. Whatever the temperament of the
brain, heat prevails. Even the smelling of roses will make a man sneeze.
He who suffers from such sneezing is said to suffer from an allergy.

From roses comes the Rose Water of Nisibin and from this comes
the Syrup of Roses of Nisibin.

As for the elegant red rose, it is an astringent. From it is made the
Syrup of Otto of Roses. From the white rose is made the Simple Electuary
of Roses. This is evenly poised between being an astringent and a lenitive.

From the hedge-rose is made the Ointment of Olive Oil & Roses and
the Ointment of Sesame Oil & Roses. The former mainly strengthens
the organs, the latter relieves pain. This much must be understood.

Waras — Pseudo-saffron

The pseudo-saffron is hot & dry in the second degree. The best of all
is the red variety which grows in the Yemen.

If used as an ointment, it is useful for chloasma, itch, and fissures.
If drunk, it is good for leprosy. It is good for the dyeing of cloaks. It also
strengthens sexual intercourse.

Said al-Tirmidhi: The Prophet used to praise olive oil and pseudo-
saffron as a remedy for pleurisy.

Folio 99 And from Umm Salma comes this: One of us used to anoint her face

with pseudo-saffron against chloasma.

Al-Bukharf reports the following tradition: The Probet forbade the
wearing of a cloak dyed with true or with pseudo-saffron during the
month of Pilgrimage, saying that a dyed cloak incites to sexual inter-
course and that sexual intercourse is forbidden during the Pilgrimage.

Washma — Leaf of the Indigo Plant

It is called Washma because the leaf clears grey hairs of al-Washama,
that is, of dullness or lack of lustre, when applied to the head as a dye.

Ibn ‘Abbas reports: A man with his hair dyed with henna walked
past the Prophet. The Prophet said: How good this is. Then there passed
by another man whose hair was dyed with henna and indigo. Said the
Prophet: This is better. Then there passed by yet a third man and his
hair was dyed with a yellow dye. And the Prophet said: This man is
the best of all. This story is related by Abu Dawud.

Said Bin Sirin: Bin Ziyad brought the head of al-Hassan into the
tent and it was just like the head of the Prophet, dyed with indigo.

It is related that the Prophet said about the grey hair of Abu Qahafa:
Change its colour and thereby avoid melancholia.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

119

Quran 55.58

See folio 78

Quran 26.7
Folio 100

Quran 50.37

Letter Y
Yaqut — Ruby

Rubies strengthen the heart and give it joy. They are also used as anti-
dotes. If held in the mouth a ruby will prevent thirst. They cannot be
burnt and are not friable.

Almighty God has made mention of them.

Yasmm — Jasmine

Jasmine is cold & dry. It is an aid to the aged, but much smelling of
it turns the complexion yellow. The oil of jasmine is heating. If jasmine
is dried, powdered up and then placed upon a thing, the black is turned
white.

Yaqtin — Gourd

This has been described under Qara’.

So, then, Mankind remember, consider, understand and take profit
from the saying of God: Do they not see the Earth, how many of every
noble kind We have caused to grow in it. Then say: Praise be to God,
the soverign Lord, the manifest Truth, Who in these sayings has instituted
things beneficial and things harmful and has taught such of His worship-
pers as He wishes the good things and the evil things and the tempera-
ments of things, whether they are hot or cold, wet or dry.

Now all this that I have said is but a drop in the ocean, a speck from
a mass.

And no one remembers save him to whom God gives remembrance,
as He said: Most surely there is a reminder in this for him who has
a heart or who gives ear and is a witness.

(b) Compound Drugs

Doctors say that they prefer Simples to Compound Drugs if they find
that they suffice. So they make use of Compound Drugs either for the
correction of the properties of Simples or to cover their unpleasant
taste or to render them more potent e.g. they mix ginger with turbith
to make the latter more pleasant or they mix wax with oil of verdigris
to increase its strength or the mix gum tragacanth with scammony to
remove the harmful action of the latter or they mix opium with the Great
Electuary to conserve the potency of the drug for a prolonged period.
Sometimes, if a drug has a rapid action, something is added to slow
it down. Or if it is slow in action, something is added to hasten it.

Again, if a disease is a compound disease, the remedy for it must be
compound too. Or, if the violence of the disease and its strength are
constant or because of the humours of the temperament of the patient,
no single drug can be found which opposes all adverse actions, then
a compound drug must be sought.

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CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio ioi

Folio 102

Or because of the remoteness of the diseased organ from the stomach
and because the remedy would not reach it otherwise and its powers
would have grown weak, then a remedy must be compounded which
will reach it quickly e.g. saffron combined with camphor or cinnamon
with haematite stone.

Or because of the nobility of the diseased organ a resolvent must be
mixed with the remedy in order to preserve its strength e.g. an astringent
or a scent.

Or finally, if the Simple Drug contains within itself something which
will harm any organ, then it must be compounded with what will remove
that harm.

Now, if you have understood what I have written above, then learn
further that all Creation has in it something of good and something of
harm. If the good part is predominant, then that part of Creation is
laudable and beneficial. And vice versa. In all this there is a Wisdom
which distinguishes the excellence and the might of God by virtue of
the absolute perfection which has no partner in Creation, excepting Him.
When His Wisdom demanded the rectification of the Simple Drug, one
by another, then He sent His messengers who were announcers and
advisers, who should rectify what in these Simples was corrupt and should
perfect whatever in them was beneficial.

Labid said: The generous man will not blame himself, for human
nature is corrected by association with the correcter.

This Labid is not the same as the one who said: Everything is false
excepting God. And on this the Prophet remarked: The truest words
ever spoken by a poet are these words of Labid. This Labid turned a
Moslem and his practice of Islam was excellent.

When messengers were sent to them, in some cases the good triumphed
over the bad. So they responded and obeyed and accepted the guidance
of God. And thus they were cured from the disease of ignorance. So
their seat became the seat of accomplishment and their repose the Paradise
of delights. But there were among them some who rejected God and
His mercy. So it happened to them that they were removed far from
His side. And when their bodies died, then the Fire became their seat
and Hell their destination. May God protect us from this by His kindness
and His generosity.

A poet once said:

O Thou, who eatest whatsoever thou dost desire and dost curse Medicine

and Physicians,

Thou canst but reap what thou hast planted.

Prepare thyself for the sickness that draws near.

Said the poet al-Jahiz:

Life will be sweeter if you meet a wise man:

Only the well-bred know the excellence of knowledge.

There is no medicine for the man sick with avarice:

There is no physician for the man sick with ignorance.

The Prophet gave an example of what the above means when he said :
When God sent me for guidance and wisdom, I was like heavy rain
coming upon the Earth. If that part of the Earth is good, it will accept
the water and all of the Earth will sprout and much grass will grow.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

121

while other places will allow the water to stand and God will grant the
benefit and people will drink and quench their thirst and will irrigate the
land. And it will happen that another part of the Earth will not allow
the water to stand nor will suffer grass to grow at all. The first of these
resembles those who understand the religion of God and profit from
what God has sent through me and he knows and acts accordingly. And
the second is like to men who will not raise their heads nor accept the
guidance of God for which I was sent. So look into the words of the
Prophet. And may God have mercy upon you.

Part Two
Section II

DOSAGE OF DRUGS

It is laid down that when a drug is very heating or very cooling or
very powerful, then only a small amount should be used. When just
the opposite is the case, then a large amount should be used. Similarly,
if a drug has a very slight benficial action, then use a large quantity. And
vice versa. Again, if an organ is a distant one, take a lot of the drug;
and if it is a near-by one, then take only a little. Similarly, if the organ
is a weak one, take but a little of the drug; and if it is a strong one, just
the reverse. Again, if there is marked repletion, use a strong drug; and
if repletion is but slight, employ just the opposite.

If all this is known to you, then store up among your drugs those
that are new and good. And ask God for help, saying: There is no might
but in God, the Beloved, the Wise. And after that proceed to treatment.

Part Two
Section III

REFLEXIONS ON COMPOUND PREPARATIONS

I have already spolen in this Part about drugs of well known use, so
that there is no need to discuss their uses in the treatment of Disease.

So now to deal with Sweet Ebullients. These are ebullients of the
Folio 103 jujube tree, sebestens, fennel, and extract of liquorice. As for decoctants

for purifying sweet ebullients, these include seeds of parsley, red currants,
and coriander seeds. As for sweet infusions, they include dried apricots,
jujube tree, water lily blossom and plums.

As for Bitter Ebullients, add tamarinds and pomegranite seeds.

As for Laxative Infusions, include among them Meccan senna and
violet seeds. These can be strengthened by ten grains of scammony
with a little tragacanth. All these should be infused with hot water and
strained through sugar.

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CYRIL ELGOOD

As for Decotions of Fruit, here should be included the laxative infusion
of the chebulic and yellow myrobalans. Apricots and sebestens can be
substituted. These can be cooked and strengthened with scammony and
rhubarb. As for decoctions of cuscuta, include decoctions of its fruit,
polypody and agaricum. To scammony add Armenian stone and lapis
lazuli. If there is any associated pain in the joints, add colchicum, orchid
and turbith. Others add manna, fumitory and endive if there is any
itch or scabbing.

As for the Linctus of Rhubarb, this is made from rhubarb and scammony
with plum juice. To these may be added honey of cassia instead of the
plum juice or honey of carobs.

As for Pills, these include purgative pills and turbith, the myrobalans,
and scammony, mixed with water and used as pills in the size of small
peas. Al-Maruzf once said: I said to Abu ‘Abd-Ullah Ahmad : I have got
a severe headache. And he replied: Then set up a flow of your nature.
And added: Verily this comes from the dryness of your nature. And later
he added: I will give you a pill which I will prepare for you. And he
produced a pill for me and said: Take this at night time. And he said
Folio 104 that it was composed of yellow and black myrobalan, mastich, and a

little aloes. And indeed this pill is good for a headache.

As for Softening Enemas, these include jujube, sebestens, violet blossom,
senna, seeds of the two mallows, cassia, scammony, borax, red sugar,
sesame oil, and slices or leaves of beet.

It was the opinion of the Imam Ahmad that enemata were abhorrent
except when necessary, as is related in the traditions of Harab. On this
subject Mujahid, al-Hassan, Taus and ‘Amar agreed. All but one wrote:
Yet we do not forbid them. In the same strain spoke Ibrahim and Abu
Jaffar and al-Hukm ibn ‘Ayaina and ‘Ata. Al-Khalal said: Abu ‘Abd-
Ullah forbade enemata, but later gave permission for the purpose of
medical treatment. Al-Khalal reports this tradition and his chain of
authorities includes Sa'd bin Ayman who said that ‘Umr bin al-Khattab
was very indulgent in this respect.

Among his traditions there is found this saying authorised by Jabir:
I asked Mohamed ibn ‘All about enemata and he said: There is no
objection; they are a medicine just like other medicines. Said Abu Bakr
al-Maruzf: I described to Abu ‘Abd-Ullah the advantages of the enema.

As for the question whether the reception of an enema broke the fast
or not, in this matter there is a difference of opinion.

The first use of an enema was by a bird who had eaten too many fish.
He made use of his beak. As soon as he felt a heaviness, he took some
salt sea water and inserted it into his rectum. Thus he caused himself
to excrete what was inside. It has already been said that salt is to be
included among laxatives.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

123

Folio 105

Quran 76.2
Folio 106

Part Three
Section I

DISEASE & TREAMENT

It has already been said that the supreme objective of Medicine is the
preservation of health, that is, for health to be present and its absence
to be avoided. This indeed is what we have said. And we have also shown
that the Prophet permitted treatment by drugs, nay rather, that he urged
it. For Jabir reports the tradition that the Prophet said: For every disease
there is a remedy and, when the remedy is exhibited, the disease is cured
by the permission of Almighty God. By this means, added Muslim,
the Prophet stimulated treatment by drugs.

Abu Harira reports the traditional saying: God did not send down
any disease without also sending down a medicine or a cure. And al-
Bukhari adds: And in the last word of the saying “ He did not create
a disease without also creating a medicine for it ” the medicine is indeed
the cure.

Of Asama ibn Shank it is reported that he said: I was with the Prophet
when some Arabs approached him, saying: O Prophet, give us some
treatment. And he replied: Verily the worshippers of God shall receive
treatment; for He did not permit of any disease without also creating
a cure for it. To this there is only one exception, senile decay.

All four Traditionalists report this saying as well as the following:
Receive treatment and make use of medicines. But as for excessive old
age, senile decay resembles a disease, for death follows close upon it.

From Abu Sa'i'd comes this: Verily the Prophet said: God has not
created any disease without setting a cure for it. He who knows it, knows
it and he who is ignorant of it, is ignorant of it. And the only exception
to this is Death.

Said Abu Harira: The Prophet said: He who made a disease to descend
upon the Earth, also made to descend a remedy.

Said Abu Kharama: I once said: O Prophet, have you seen a charm
which we can employ or any drug that we can exhibit or any act of piety
which we can perform which is super-erogatory in any way to what is
ordained by God ? And he answered: There exists only what is ordained
by God. This tradition is reported by al-Tirmidhi and he has embellished
it.

Now Man is by nature self-protective. His body is created from various
mixtures. Said Almighty God : Surely We have created Man from semen
mingled with blood. Now, these mixtures are the humours. Man’s support
and defence rest upon a proper adjustment of his constitution. And this
in turn depends upon the use of what benefits him and the avoidance
of what harms him. And this is the supreme object of Medicine.

Disease dissolves the essential juices from which Man is created and
sets up putrefaction within them. The Art of Medicine is to prevent
this putrefaction and to protect the juices from rapid solution. Hence
the proverbial saying of the Prophet: Like to the Sons of Adam at whose

124

CYRIL ELGOOD

side are ninety-nine diseases; if he avoid these, he will fall into old age
until he dies. Al-Tirmidhi extracted this traditional saying.

From Ibn Mas'ud comes this version of the saying: If man avoids
this, then that snatches him; and if he avoids that, then this takes him.
This is the version which is reported by al-Bukhari.

Death is indeed inevitable, but Medicine gives treatment for the
diseases of old age. Once said a physician: Death is fixed for a body
by its very nature, but Medicine improves the days of waiting for it.

Medicine protects the health of the healthy and restores it to the
sick as far as is possible. This is evident from the saying of the Prophet:
Science is twofold, the science of bodies and the science of religions.
However this is not a true tradition, but a saying of al-Shafi'i. The correct
saying is reported by Mohamed bin Sahil al-Tusi, quoting al-RabP who
heard it from the Prophet. His comment was: There are two classes of
men who are indispensible, philosophers for religion and physicians for
bodies. Said the Prophet: Science is threefold - the verbal accuracy of
the Quran, the enforcement of Tradition, and the Justice of Obligations.
Whatever goes beyond these is redundant. This is the saying as reported
by al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Maja.

Now, Medicine is one of the enduring traditions, for the Prophet
practiced it and gave orders about it. He also said: There are five things
found among the rules of the prophets - penitence, long-suffering, vene-
section, the use of the tooth-brush, and the use of perfumes. And verily
traditions on this subject are many. And God is all-knowing.

Part Three
Section II

IS IT BETTER TO MAKE USE OF DRUGS OR NOT ?

There is universal agreement that the use of medicine is lawful. Some
are of the opinion that it is desireable to make use of drugs because
Folio 107 of the well-known saying of the Prophet: Use medicine. And also because

he himself used to take medicine both in health and in sickness. When
in good health he used to use dates, pumpkins and water melons. He
would eat sparsely, take a siesta at noon and combine two times of prayer
into one. He would also drink an infusion of raisins or figs or similar
things, as has already been described.

As for the times when he was ill ‘Ayesha said: The Prophet had many
illnesses. At such times there used to come and sit beside him several
Arab and non-Arab doctors who gave him treatment.

Said Hasham: I once said to ‘Ayesha: I am astonished at your skill
and your knowledge of Medicine. And she replied: When the Prophet
grew old, he fell sick. Visitors used to come to call upon him. From
them I acquired my skill.

Said Ka c b: God said: I give health and I give medicines; so let all
men use medicine.

There is indeed a sect which holds that the use of drugs should be
eschewed. From Ahmad comes a statement that it it better to avoid them.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

125

Folio 108

Quran 11.107

Quran 4.102

The reference is to the quotation in The Traditions of al-Maruzi,
who said: Treatment by medicine is permissible, but the avoidance of
medicine is a step better.

The following question was once put to Ahmad about a man who
was seriously ill but had refused medical aid: Should we have any fear
for him ? And Ahmad replied: No, for the belief of this man is a belief
in the reliance upon God. Similarly Ishaq put a question to him as to
whether a sick man should refuse medicine or should drink it. To this
Ahmad replied : If he relies on God and refuses his medicine, I am better
pleased.

A proof of this is the tradition related by Ibn ‘Abbas: A woman came
to the Prophet and said: O Prophet of God, ask God to cure me. And
he said: I will ask God if you wish it and He will cure you. But if you
are willing to endure your sickness, you will gain Paradise. And the
woman said : O Prophet of God, nay rather, I will endure it. This tradition
was extracted by al-Bukhari and by Muslim.

The Prophet said: Seventy thousand will enter Paradise with no

reckoning being required of them. These are those who have never made
use of branding irons, those who have never resorted to charms, those
who have guarded their eyes and their ears, and those who have placed
their reliance upon their Lord. Another version of this tradition only
mentions those who have used neither branding irons nor charms.
Al-Bukhari extracted this tradition.

The author of this book (upon whom may Almighty God have mercy)
says: The late Shaykh, the Imam-ul-TJlama, ‘Ala-ul-Din ibn ul-‘Atar
once quoted to me this saying: All Moslems agree that there is no obli-
gation to take medicine. But on the other hand the saying of Ahmad
that it is of obligation was quoted by the late Shaykh-ul-Islam Taqi-ul-Din
Ahmad bin Taymiah, who brought forward the traditional saying of the
Prophet: Use medicine, for it is permitted.

Of Abu Bakr ul-Siddiq comes this story. He was once asked : Shall we
call a physician in for you ? He replied: He has already been to see me.
And when they asked: What did he say to you ?, he replied: I am a
mighty doer of what I intend.

It was said to Abu Darda: Of what are you complaining ? He replied:
Of my sins. And when they asked him: What do you want ?, he replied:
The mercy of my Lord. And when they said: Shall we then call a doctor ?,
he replied: It is the doctor himself who has made me ill.

A group of persons once went to see their teacher. On entering they
said: Shall we call a doctor to you ? And he replied to them : The doctor
with all his science and drugs cannot put off what is predestined for
me.

The author of this book (upon whom may God show mercy) remarks
that dependance means the reliance of the heart upon God. This is
never contrary to reasons and causes and the majority of causes are
subservient to dependance. So the skilful practioner does what is proper
and plans his reliance upon God in the final result.

Said Almighty God: Take your precautions and take your arms.

And the Prophet said: Hobble but have reliance as well. The Prophet
also said: Close your doors; as for me I will hide in the cave three days.

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CYRIL ELGOOD

Perhaps the disease will become chronic and the medicine for it become
a craving. Perhaps it will help and again perhaps it will not.

Part Three
Section III

ON THE CALLING-IN OF A PHYSICIAN

Said Jabir: The Prophet once sent for ‘Ah bin Ka‘b who lanced a
vein for him and then applied a cautery. This tradition is told by Muslim.

From Abu Harira comes the following story. One of the Ansari fell
ill one day. The Prophet called in to him two physicians who were in
Medina and said to them: Cure this man. In another version of the same
tradition they put this question to the Prophet: O Prophet, is the Science
of Medicine any good ? And he replied: Yes.

From Hillal bin Yassaq comes this story. In the days of the prophet
a certain person fell ill. The sick man said: Call a physician to me. But
they said: O Prophet, this man can do without a physician. And he replied:
Yes, indeed.

From the same source comes this story. The Prophet came on a visit to
a sick man and said: Send me a physician for him. And the sick man
said: O Prophet, is it you that say that? And he replied: Indeed I do.

The above sayings of the Prophet are all reportd by Abu Nu'aim in
his Kitab-ul-Tibb-il-Nabbawi.

From Zaid bin Aslam comes this story. A certain man was injured and
wounded, the blood being retained within the body. The Prophet called
to him two men of the tribe of Bani Anmar and said: Which of you two
is the better doctor? One of them replied: Is the Science of Medicine
then of any use? And the Prophet answered: He who sent down the
disease sent down also the remedy. This was related by al-Malik in his
book called al-Muwatta 1 .

The author of this present book says: It is expedient to chose one
skilled in Medicine and prudent in the Art, as is shown by the above
quoted saying of the Prophet: Which of you two is the better doctor ?.
And in the same strain Galen said: An ignorant doctor visits a man sick
with fever. He draws out one fever and puts in its place two by his improper
treatment, his meagre knowledge, and his crass ignorance.

The tradition has already been reported that ‘Ayesha said: The Prophet
was afflicted with many illnesses. There used to attend him both Arab
and non- Arab doctors. So runs the tradition.

Said Ahmad: It is permissible to take advantage of the advice of a
physician who is a dhimmi if he prescribes a lawful drug. But his advice
must not be followed if he prescribes a forbidden medicine e.g. alcohol
and similar things. In the same way he must not be heeded when he
talks of breaking a fast or of fasting or of praying sitting down and of
cognate subjects. In such matters attention must be paid only when
the advice comes from two upright Moslem physicians.

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127

Folio hi

Ahmad expressed a further opinion when he said that it was undesi-
reable to use drugs prescribed by a dhimmi in the form of electuaries
and decoctions.

Ahmad bin ul-Hassan said in his Book of Traditions that the drinking
of medicine prescribed by a polytheist was anathema.

Said al-Maruzi: Ahmad used to forbid me to buy medicine prescribed
for him by a Christian, because he said that it was possible that he would
mix in unlawful matter, meaning things poisonous and things unclean
and so forth, believing them to be beneficial.

Part Three
Section IV

ON THE IMPOSITION OF ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD

Abstinence from food causes Disease to stand still and permits the
Faculties to expel it. The Prophet used to give orders to this effect and
to forbid all things that do harm.

Says the author of this book: I was told by the Imam al-Hafiz Jamal-
ul-Din abu Hajjaj Yusuf bin al-Zaki ‘Abd-ul-Rahman Yusuf al-Mazani,
who said he was told by Abu ul-Ishaq Ibrahim bin Isma‘ fl bin Ibrahim
al-Qurshi, who said he was told by Abu Ja'far Mohamed bin Ahmad
bin Nasr the Druggist, who said he was told by Abu ‘All al-Hassan
bin Ahmad the Smith, by Abu Mansur Mahmud bin Isma‘il the Money-
changer, and by Fatima bint ‘Abd-Ullah al-Juzdaniya, of these the
Smith said that they were told by Abu Nu‘aim Ahmad bin ‘Abd-Ullah
al-Hafiz, and the Moneychanger said that they were told by Abu ul-
Hussayn Ahmad bin Mohamed bin Fad shah, and Fatima said that they
were told by Abu Bakr Mohamed bin ‘Abd-Ullah bin Zayd, all of whom
said that they were told by Abu ul-Qasim Sulayman bin Ahmad of
Tiberias, who said that he had received the tradition from Sharih bin
al-Na‘man, who said that he had received the tradition from Faliyah
bin Sulayman, who received it from Ayub bin ‘Abd-ul-Rahman bin
‘Abd-Ullah bin abu Sa‘sa‘t, who received it from Ya‘qub bin abu Ya‘qub,
who received it from Umm-ul-Manzir Salmi bint Qays al-Ansariyya. And
verily she said: The Prophet entered my tent and with him came ‘All.
‘Ali was convalescing from some sickness. Now, we had there a palm-
tree with some clusters hanging from it. And she continued her story:
the Prophet stood eating and ‘Ah too stood there eating. Then said the
Prophet: Gently, gently, you are convalescent. And Umm-ul-Manzir
continued: So ‘All sat down while the Prophet continued to eat from
the tree. In the mean time I prepared for them a dish of spinach and
barley. Then said the Prophet to ‘Ah: Take a helping of this, for it is
more suitable for you.

This tradition is also related by the Imam Ahmad, who was told it
by Sharih bin al-Na‘man, whose chain of authorities we have already
cited. But al-Tirmidhi said: We do not recognise these authorities prior
to Faliyah. However, the tradition is also related by Abu Dawud in his
Book on Medicine.

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CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 1 12

(The word al-Dawal is the plural of al-Daliyat and means a cluster
of dates on a tree of fully grown dates just beginning to ripen and now
fit for eating.

The word al-Naqa means one cured from his disease but recently
and not yet restored to full health.

The words Hamiyat-ul-Mariz mean the abstinence of a sick man
from food. The very word Himwat implies the enjoining of a sick man
to abstain from harmful food and the word Mariz or Sick-man is redundant.)

Said al-Sahfb: I came to visit the Prophet one day and he had before
him dates and bread. And he called: Draw near and eat. So I began to
eat some dates. And the Prophet said: Do you eat dates at a time when
you are suffering from ophthalmia ? This tradition is related by al-Hami'da.

Qatada reports that the Prophet said: When God loves His servant,
He protects him from the World, just as each one of you ceases not to
protect his sick from food and drink. This saying is related by al-Tirmidhf,
and a very similar one by al-Juzi.

It is reported of ‘Umr that he would prevent his sick from eating,
not even allowing them to suck a date-stone, so severe was the abstinence
that he imposed.

The Physician of the Arabs, al-Harith bin Kalda, was asked: What is
the epitome of Medicine ? He replied: The imposition of abstinence from
food.

Said Ka‘b bin Sa‘d when reciting the funeral oration over his brother
Shahi'b: Sulayma is asking of your body why it is so dried up, just as
though a physician had bidden you to abstain from all drink.

Said Ahmad: There is no objection to enjoining abstinence. When
Ahmad himself was ill, he used to eat only marrow and pease, and meatless
dishes would be cooked for him in sesame oil. ‘Abd-ul- Rahman the
Physician used to prescribe for him as his drink the juice of cooked
marrow with sugar. And this was his diet.

Abu Nu'aim in his Tibb-ul-Nabbawf relates the tradition that the
Prophet would never approach any of his wives who was suffering from
ophthalmia until she was cured.

Part Three
Section V

ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE STUDY OF MEDICINE

The saying of the Prophet has already been quoted that God has not
sent down any disease without also sending down the remedy. And we
have stated that that is decisive in the removing of anxieties and in insti-
gating the application of the mind to acquire a knowledge of Medicine.
We have also already said that Medicine is a most excellent Art.

The Imam ShafPi said: After the Science which distinguishes between
what is lawful and what is unlawful, I know of no Science which is more
noble than that of Medicine. He was grieved to see how much Moslems
had lost of this Science. Often he used to say: They have lost one-third
of human knowledge and have allowed themselves to be replaced by

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

129

Jews and Christians. He also used to say: Verily the people of the Book
Folio 1 13 have now conquered and surpassed us in this sublime Art. Now Shaft ‘f

besides his immense superiority in the Science of Law, besides his tran-
scending merit in the Arabic language, was a skilled doctor.

The author of this book (upon whom may God have mercy) here
remarks: I once saw our shaykh Shaykh Ibrahim al-Rumf who was highly
skilled in Medicine. So also were Shaykh-ul-Islam Taqi-ul-Din Ahmad
bin Taymiah and Shaykh ‘Imad-ul-Dfn al-Wasiti (upon both of whom may
God have mercy).

The author also adds that Hippocrates was the chief of this Art and
his principles in the Art are the correct principles. After him came Galen,
who too was a leader in the Art. These are the two great doctors who
excel all others. They say that the tomb of Hippocrates still exists and
is held in honour by the Greeks.

Tradition says that Seth was the first to reveal Medicine, having
inherited it from his father Adam. Some say he got it by experience
others say by guess work. Some say the people of Egypt invented Medicine,
others say the people of India. Some say that Medicine is magic and that
Idriss and Hermes evolved the two Arts of Philosophy and Medicine.
But it is more probable that it came from the teaching of Almighty God
and from His People. This much is certain that guess-work and experience
alone are insufficient.

According to Ibn ‘Abbas the Prophet once said: Solomon was once
engaged in prayer and saw a bush growing in front of him. He asked its
name and its use and then wrote this down.

And indeed we have seen human beings and some animals using
medicines by nature and by instinct. Thus, everyone when hungry seeks
food: and in the same way, when thirsty, seeks water. And when a man is
afflicted by sorrow, he cools himself off, and vice versa. If a man suffers
Folio 1 14 from indigestion, he abstains from food. This is what is meant by Empi-

rical Medicine.

Again, if a serpent emerges after the winter and finds its vision poor,
it will seek out and eat some fennel. And his eyes wil be strengthened
by the herb and he will see well. Hence physicians have recommended
the use of fennel for cases of weak sight. Similarly, a bird which dives
for fish, will when constipated give himself an enema of sea water. This
we have already mentioned. And again, if the young of the swallow
becomes blind, the mother bird will bring him the plant called swallow-
wort, even from as far away as China, and he will regain his sight. Again,
if the female eagle has difficulty in laying her eggs, the male will fly to
India and fetch a stone known as Katamat or The Stone of Secrecy.
It is a stone which resembles the Badaqa Stone. If she refuses it, then a
sound of movement is heard within. Then the male places it beneath
the female bird and the egg will come down. Again, a fox in spring
if ill, will eat grass which sets up a flow and he will recover. A cat too
will eat of it and it will promote vomiting. And it is a well known fact
that grass is the food of neither of these animals. So praise be to Him
Who created everything and gave guidance for their use.

Said Hasham bin ‘Arwat: I never met anyone who knew more Medicine
than ‘Ayesha. I once said to her: O my aunt, where did you learn all your

130 CYRIL ELGOOD

Medicine ? And she replied: I used to hear people prescribing one for
another and I stored up their remarks in my memory. On the same
subject he said: I said to ‘Ayesha: I am astonished at your insight into
Medicine, O thou Mother of the Believers. And she said: O son of my
sister, when the Prophet grew old, he grew sick. Groups of people used
to come and used to prescribe remedies for him. From these I learnt
my Medicine.

From the same man comes the story that ‘Ayesha once said: O son of
my sister, whenever any member of my family was sick, the Prophet
Folio ns used to prescribe for him. So I used to bear it in mind and prescribe

the same for other people. Abu Nu‘aim relates this tradition.

In the saying of the Prophet: No disease has come down from God
without there also coming down from God the remedy for it, known to
those who know, in this saying the Prophet is referring to physicians.
And when he says: Unknown to those who know it not, he is referring
to the rest of mankind. And God knows the best.

It is reported by ‘Amaru bin Sha‘fb, the tradition passing from his
grandfather and his father, that the Prophet said: He who gives medical
care but is not recognised as a physician and thereby causes death or
anything short of that, he is held responsible for this. This saying was
extracted by Abu Dawud and al-Nasa‘f and by Ibn Maja.

And from the same sources comes the saying: He who gives medical
attention without having previously made a study of Medicine, must
bear the responsibility. Al-Khattabi said: I can see no objection to the
view that if a person giving medical treatment exceeds his limit and
the patient dies, then that person is responsible. And a man who gives
himself out as one having a knowledge which in fact he has not, such
a one verily exceeds his limit; and by general opinion the crime of the
quack is expiable to the heirs.

It is therefore abominable that a man should be called a physician
who has no knowledge of the Art of Medicine.

From Abu Ramthah comes this saying: I entered the tent of the Prophet
with my father. My father diagnosed a disease of the back. So he said:
Pray allow me to treat this affection of your back, for I am a physician.
And the Prophet replied: You are my friend, God is my physician. This
tradition is related in the Shart-ul-Sahjha.

Part Three
Section VI

ON THE FEES OF DOCTORS

Abu Sa‘id said: Some of the Companions of the Prophet went and
encamped near an Arab village. No one helped them to get down from
their camels nor were they offered a meal. It happened that a man of the
village was bitten by a snake. Then the villagers came and enquired if
any of them knew how to work charms. But they replied: You did not help
us to dismount nor did you offer us a meal. So we shall give you no help

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Folio 116

Quran 1.4

Folio 1 17

I 3 I

until you make us a present. Then they made them a present of some
sheep. Then the man was brought before them and they read over him
the opening verses of the Quran. And they read verses over him and
they spat until he was cured. And the Companions went off with the
sheep. So they asked the Prophet about that matter. And he said: Who
said that this was a charm ? Eat and give me a share. Al-Bukhari and
Muslim extracted this tradition.

Another versions runs: The villagers said: Have you any medicine ?
And they replied: Yes, but we will not give you any until you pay us
for it. This is the version of Abu Dawud.

Another version also quoted by Abu Dawud runs: They read verses
of the Quran over him for three days morning and evening. When they
were finished, the sick man collected his spittle and spat it out and he
was freed as it were from a heel-rope.

Another versions runs: They brought along a delirious or mad man,
tied and bound.

Another version says: They gave them for their treatment one hundred
ewes.

The Umm-ul-Quran is the most useful verse of all to recite because
it contains the magnification of God together with the purity of His
worship and the calling upon Him for help. It is said that the exact
point of curing by verse recitation is at the words “ Thee do we serve
and Thee do we beseech for help ”.

Said the Prophet: The reading of verses in conjunction with charms
is Dualism. The reason for this statement is that Dualism is associated
with the reading of verses. And so indeed it is. But when the reading
of verses is free from Dualism, then it is permitted to Moslems. There
is nothing to prevent the reading of verses over a sick man if no Dualism
is involved.

Another version of the Prophet’s words runs: A man came to the
Prophet and said: O Messenger of God, you have forbidden the recitation
of verses over the sick. Yet I can cure scorpion bites by these recitations.
The Prophet replied: He who among you is able to help his brother, let
him do so.

Probably this forbidding of a proven fact is because people believed
that the benefits came from the very nature of the words themselves.
Afterwards this veto was cancelled. When Islam and the search after
truth became established in their souls, then he gave them permission
for these recitations provided that they believed that it was God who
gave the benefits or the reverse. What is meant by a charm is the hanging
of beads around the neck which some think prevents evil. Such is sheer
ignorance.

But mark you, there are some words which do indeed have some
intrinsic property which helps by the permission of Almighty God.
To the truth of this there is the testimony of many learned men. For
what do you think about the very words of God and the reported saying
of ‘All: The Quran is the best of all medicines. Bin Maja reports this
saying.

In their acceptance of a flock of sheep there is proof that a fee for
Medicine and that a cure by the reading of verses are permitted. Its

1 3 2

CYRIL ELGOOD

lawfulness is further proved by the saying of the Prophet: Make for me
a share.

Furthermore it is said that the flock was divided up according to the
wishes of the reader who had worked the cure. Another commentator
gives the information that the reader was named Abu Sa'id al-Khadari.
Such at least is the tradition. This story was introduced into the book
called al-Jama 4 by al-Tirmidhi in his chapter on the fees of doctors.
Abu Dawud also mentioned it in a brief reference in the part of his book
connected with fees for physicians.

About spitting and breathing out, the explanation of these will come
ater, I hope.

Part Three
Section VII

ON PALPATION & INSPECTION OF THE SICK

Mujahid said that Sa'd remarked: I was once sick and the Prophet
came to visit me. He put his hand between my nipples until I felt its
coolness in the organs that lie within the chest wall. He said: Verily
you are a man muLud. So he sent for al-Harath bin Kalda from Thaqif,
who is indeed an excellent physician. Note: a man is said to be muf’ud
when he has a disease of the organs that lie within the thorax.

Again, the Prophet said: On completion of your visit to a sick man,
put your hand upon his forehead and enquire how he is. This saying is
reported by al-Tirmidhi.

It was the custom of the Prophet whenever he entered the house of
a sick man, to lay his hand upon him. This tradition is related by al-Bukhari.

Inspection of the Sick Man & the Part
it plays in Treatment

Said Abu Sa^d: The Prophet said: Treat with respect the physiog-
nomist who is a fervent Believer, for he views by the light of God.
And from the same source comes this saying: If you see a jaundiced
man who has no disease and who is not a worshipper, then know from
this that at heart he is a sham Moslem.

Folio n 8 From Anas comes this tradition. He said: The Prophet said: Verily

God has worshippers who are known to men simply by looking at them.
Abu Nu'aim, too, relates this.

Physiognomy is the Science of deducing what is inside from what
is visible outside. It is said to be a mental power which fastens upon
the heart and rejects what is opposed to it. It has a power upon the heart
like the power of a lion on its prey. And from this the deduction is made.

Physiognomy, as practiced by an individual, depends upon how great
is his intelligence, his faith, and his knowledge of the principles of the
Science. Said Almighty God: Surely in this are signs for those who

Quran 15.75

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

133

examine. This refers to the physiognomists and means: I have examined
him outwardly and found him good within, or, more simply, I have
inspected him.

This Science is particularly useful when the cause of a disease is in
doubt. Then the physician will look at the temperament of the body
and make a diagnosis from the colour, the temperature, the feell, and
the eye.

Part Three

Section VIII

ON THE PERMISSION FOR WOMEN TO TREAT MEN
MEN WHO ARE NOT THEIR CLOSE RELATIONS

Said Umm ‘Atiyya: We journeyed with the Prophet in seven raids.
I travelled in the rear with the baggage. I prepared their food and I
treated the sick and wounded. Muslim extracted this tradition.

Anas said: The Prophet once made a raid and took with him Umm
Saylam, and with her came the womenfolk of the Ansari. They used
to carry round the drinking water and they used to treat the wounded.
This tradition is told by Muslim.

Ahmad says that it is lawful for a physician to look at a woman, even
though not a relative, whenever the need requires it, even at the forbidden
places. This was also the view of al-Maruzi in his Book of Traditional
Sayings and of al-Athram and of Isma'il. Similarly it is lawful for a
woman to look upon the forbidden parts of a man in case of necessity.

Folio 1 19 So says Harab among his collection of traditions.

Said al-Maruzi: Abu ‘Abd-Ullah had his head full of nits. He called
to a woman and she deloused him.

So it is evident that it is lawful for a man to treat a woman not his
relative and to see her forbidden parts in cases of illness. And similarly
it is lawful for a woman to treat a man and see his forbidden parts in a
case of illness, if there is no man or woman from the family at hand.
Al-Maruzi says this in his Book of Traditions.

In the same way it is permitted for a witness to see the face of a woman
and also for the one who intends to perform the marriage ceremony.

Again, if a man dies among women or a woman dies among men, the
women are allowed to wash the corpse of the man and the men that of
the woman. There are therefore two traditions and in truth the one
completes the other.

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CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 120

Part Three
Section IX

LET THERE BE NO COMPULSION FOR A SICK MAN
IN EXTREMIS TO EAT AND DRINK.

Bin ‘Amar said: The Prophet said: Do not force your sick to eat or
to drink, for God gives them food and God gives them drink. This
was related by al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Maja held it to be a fair tradition.

If a sick man has no desire for food because his nature is engaged
with disease or because of loss of appetite or because his faculties are
weak or for any other cause, then it is most improper at that time to
give him food. For if the sick man is then forced to take food, the functions
of his nature are weakened by it and he is occupied in digesting food
instead of resisting and expelling sickness. So that food actually does him
harm, especially at the time of the crisis. For then it will augment the
pain.

At the time of the crisis nothing should be given except what conserves
the faculties, small amounts of syrups to drink of a well balanced tempe-
rament, such as syrups of roses and apples or chicken soups, and what
stimulates the faculties by its pleasing smell or a little bread.

An unconscious patient may need to be fed by force.

Sometimes the sick man has no desire for food because of the exces-
sive congestion of his body. In this case if you feed him, you will increase
his bad state.

Both Hippocrates and Avicenna said: Food is a friend of the Faculties
from the point of view of being food, but it is their enemy from the point
of view that it is also the friend of their foe. By the foe of the Faculties
is meant the Materies Morbi.

The meaning of the saying of the Prophet quoted above that God
gives food and God gives drink, is that God treats the sick as though
He were giving them food and giving them drink. And so there is no
harm in their not taking food or drink. Hence comes another saying of the
Prophet: I am not like to any one of you. For I dwell with God and He
gives me food and He gives me drink.

On the Appetite of a Sick Man and on the giving
him to Eat what he desires.

Ibn ‘Abbas relates that the Prophet visited a man and asked him what
he would like. The man replied: Wheaten bread. According to another
version of this tradition the man said: Plain cake. Said the Prophet:
Let him who has wheaten bread, send it to his brother. And he added:
If any one of you is sick and has an appetite for anything, let him eat
of it. This saying was extracted by Ibn Maja.

If a sick man eats what he desires, even if there is harm in it, it will
be more beneficial and less harmful to him than if he eat what he does

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

r 35

Folio 121

See f. in

Folio 122

not desire, even though it be beneficial for him. But if what he desires
is also beneficial, then it is without equal. Whenever the appetite is
proper, it is incumbent upon the physician to harken to what the appetite
of the sick man demands.

Said Hippocrates: Whatever of food or drink is less in goodness but
more in pleasantness, it is incumbent that this be chosen before what
is the more excellent.

On Forbidding to the Patient many things

WHICH INCREASE HIS DISEASE

Said Ja‘far bin Mohamed, having heard the story from his father:
Some one presented the Prophet with a packet of dates at a time when
‘AH had fever. The Prophet gave him one date, then another and another
until he had allowed him to eat seven. Then he said: That is enough
for you. This he did because there is in dates a something which harms
people with fever and brings upon them headaches and thirst. But if
they take only a few, this harm does not come upon them.

Meatless Dishes for the Sick

We have already related the tradition of Umm ul-Manzir and her
saying: I make for them spinach & barley.

‘Ayesha reports the following: Whenever any of the followers of the
Prophet were indisposed, he would order a soup to be made for them,
and he would make them drink the soup. He used to day that it would
please the innermost parts of the afflicted and ease the innermost parts
of the sick, wiping away affliction and sickness as dust is wiped away
from the face. This saying is related by al-Tirmidhi.

In this story indisposition means fever and soup means a cooked dish
made of flour, water and fat boiled together. Such a dish pleases the
inner parts of the afflicted that is to say, it fortifies and strengthens him
and wipes away and removes all pain from his innermost parts.

Again ‘Ayesha reports: If the Prophet was ever told that some one was
off his food, he used to say: Make for him a talabina soup and give it
him to eat. And again she said: The Prophet said: The talabina soup
fills to the brim the inner parts of a sick man and drives away sorrow.
This is related by al-Bukhari. Note: talabina soup is a soup made from
flour or bran, oftened sweetened with honey. It is called Talabina from
the word Labn (= milk) because being white it resembles milk. It is
a very filling soup and gives much relief. Some say it is an aperient,
others say it constipates. And indeed grief and sorrow render the temper-
ament cold and weaken the Innate Heat. This soup strengthens the
Innate Heat and makes it grow. The phrase “innermost parts” here means
the cardia of the stomach.

‘Ayesha herself relates that she used to order talabina soup, saying
that it was horrid but useful. Tradition says that she herself ordered
talabina soup for patients. Al-Bukhari relates this. She used the word
* horrid ’ because patients used to hate and refuse it.

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The author of this work says that if you wish to reckon up the uses
of soup, you must reckon up the uses of barley water, especially when
combined with bran. For soup causes a brightness, permeates rapidly
throughout the body and provides a pleasing nourishment, especially
when taken hot. Then its benefits are even greater, its tonic action is
more rapid, and its brightening effect enhanced.

Part Three
Section X

ON VARIOUS MINOR ATTENTIONS TO THE SICK,

On Binding the Head

Ibn ‘Abbas relates that during his last illness the Prophet came forth
with his head bound up with a piece of cloth. He sat like this in the pulpit
and praised God. Tradition commends him at great length for this and
glorifies his name. The full tradition is quoted by al-Bukhari.

Traditionally Mohamed bound his head with a very tight bandage.
In this there is a strengthening of the head and a soothing of pain.

Shaving of the Head

Al-Bukhari wrote some chapters on this subject, quoting Ka‘b bin
‘Ajra who said: In the time of the Prophet I was standing beneath the
pulpit when a louse crawled out of my head. The Prophet said: Could
this be from you ? And I replied: Yes. So he said to me: Then shave
your scalp. This tradition was extracted by al-Bukhari.

Shaving the head opens the pores, quietens head aches, and strengthens
the whole head. Bin ‘Abbas thought that shaving of the nape of the neck
thickens the neck.

Snuff for a Sick Man

Ibn ‘Abbas said that the Prophet used to use snuff. This is generally
agreed upon.

The phrase ‘ to use snuff ’ means to insert some drug into the nose.
Snuff is much used to put a man to sleep and to calm him down. Because
of this physicians order the nose & limbs of a sick man to be anointed
with oil of violets.

Washing of the Limbs of a Sick Man

In the Sahih of al-Bukhari it is confirmed of the Prophet that he ordered
seven vessels of water to be poured upon him during his sickness because
this animates a sick man, breathes sleep into him, and strengthens his
faculties.

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137

Part Three
Section XI

VISITS OF THE SICK TO THE HEALTHY

Abu Harira relates that the Prophet said: A sick man should not go
and visit the healthy. Ibn ‘Abbas, too, relates that the Prophet said:
Do not gaze for any length of time upon a leper. This is related by Ibn
Maja. And al-Bukhari added: Fly from one with leprosy as you fly from
a lion.

Jabir relates that the Prophet took the hand of a leper and put it with
his own into a dish saying: Eat in the name of God. This is told by al-
Tirmidhi and Ibn Maja. A similar tradition is related by Ibn TJmr
who says that there was a leper in the mission of Thaqff. The Prophet
sent to him: Return, for we have accepted your homage. This is related
by Muslim and al-Nasad.

Folio 124 But as for the saying of the Prophet: Let not a sick man make a visit,

this does not refer to the sick man himself, but rather the meaning is
the man whose cattle are sick. Such a man should not visit a man whose
cattle are healthy. For if perchance by the Will of God the healthy cattle
should fall sick, their owner may turn over in his own mind that this
coincidence followed from that visit.

The Prophet said: There is no such thing as contagion nor such a
thing as an evil omen. Such ideas should be shunned.

Leprosy

Leprosy is due to the spread of black bile throughout the body. It
corrupts the temperament of the organs and their shape. Often it eats
them up and causes them to drop off. The disease of Leprosy is also
called Leontiasis either because lions often suffer from it or because
the face of the sufferer from leprosy comes to resemble that of a lion.

Physicians hold that Leprosy is both contagious and hereditary.

The Prophet forbade long gazing upon a leper. He once sent for a
leper and gave orders for his return again. He also once took a meal
with a leper. So, he avoided the first from the point of view of caution
and he eat with the second to show that it is permitted.

Said Ibn Qatayba: He who approaches a leper, will himself become
sick from the smell, not from the contagion. Said ‘Ayesha: This statement is
confuted by the saying of the Prophet that there is no contagion and
by his eating with a leper. And as for his saying: Fly from a leper, this
is an order legitimising it. For those who can not endure his suffering,
these should shun a leper. And it is indeed the smell that is the cause
of his infectivity. And all power is with God.

CYRIL ELGOOD

138

Part Three
Section XII

THE PROHIBITION OF GIVING TREATMENT
WITH THINGS IMPURE

I have already discussed the traditions reported by Tariq bin Suwayd
and others about the illegality of giving treatment with wine and such-
like. Note: the word khamr (= wine) is both masculine and feminine
and one may write khamr or khamr a.

The Best of the True Ones once said that wine is not a medicine
but rather a disease, because it contains things that are noxious and do
Folio 12s harm by taking away a man’s sense. And if a man’s sense goes, then

his Faith goes. And if the Faith goes, then Hell is that man’s destination.
May Almighty God preserve us from that.

Said Hippocrates: The damage done by wine to the head is great,
for it harms the understanding. The author of the Liber Regius says
that it has a special property of damaging the brain and the nerves.
Others have said that it causes forgetfulness and sudden death and makes
what is bad appear good. It may generate shaking palsies, facial palsies,
muscular palsies, apoplexy, and other similar states.

Said ‘Ayesha: The Prophet said: All that inebriates is illegal and what-
ever inebriates the power of discrimination, even a handful of it, is for-
bidden. This saying is reported by al-Tirmidhf and Abu Dawud.

It is well known that wine used to be a remedy for certain diseases.
It may well be that Almighty God removed these benefits from it when
He made wine illegal. And this He made known to the Prophet who
then said: Wine is a disease and not a medicine.

Said Shaykh Muhyi-ul-Dfn al-Tawawi: The Prophet said: He who
breaks his fast with seven ‘ajwat dates, no poison or witchcraft will harm
him that day. And he added: That is excellent doctrine and canon law
ordains it. And I myself say: Shaykh Muhyi-ul-Din spoke the truth.
May God have mercy upon him.

These facts were unknown to any physician or to any person or even
to any one of the prophets. Nor had anyone called attention to the fact
except the Prophet Mohamed. On the other hand some of the later
physicians have claimed that ‘ajwat dates are a remedy for cold poisons
and for that reason God removed the benefits from wine, a fact which
Folio 126 He revealed to the Prophet alone, when he prohibited its use. In the

version of Abu Talib the saying of Abu Thawar was put to Ahmad:
Do you treat your patients with wine ? And he replied: This is a throughly
bad saying.

In the same strain al-Maruzf reports that the saying of Abu Thawar
was told to Ahmad who replied: Even if physicians are united in the
giving of wine to the sick, I condemn it utterly.

Nor is it lawful to treat with any theriacum which contains the flesh
of serpents in wine. According to the version of al-Maruzf he said: If
it contains only the flesh of serpents, I do not think that it should be

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

*39

taken. Similarly he said: If it is mixed with asses’ milk, it should not be
drunk, not even in dire necessity. And the same thing is true about it if
mixed with the urine of asses. The proof of this is found in the tradition
of Abu Harira, who reports that the Prophet said: He who receives
treatment with means permitted by God will be cured. But he who
receives treatment with means forbidden by God, for him God will
surely not suffer a cure. And the Prophet made unlawful the flesh of
asses and their milk on the Day of Khavbar.

It is premitted to drink the urine of camels in case of necessity. This
is reported in the traditions of Saleh, Ibn Hanbal, Mahomed bin Al-
Hasan, Ishaq bin Ibrahim, Harab, ‘Abd-Ullah, al-Athram, and Ibrahim
ibn al-Harath. As for whether the drinking of it is permitted without
dire necessity, the generally accepted tradition is that it is permitted
according to the above quoted tradition of Anas.

The taking of narcotic drugs is forbidden. One such is the drug called
al-Dari. This is a seed which resembles a barley-seed. It is black in colour.
Another example is al-Banj which causes intoxication.

We have already mentioned the prohibition by the Prophet of the killing
of frogs for the purpose of food. This law against the killing of them
is because they are classified as a poison. It is true that there is no indication
of the publication and the making known of any such prohibition. But
the reason for the order is because there exists in frogs much that is
Folio 127 harmful. In some species whoever eats their flesh, his teeth will fall out,

even the teeth of domestic animals. If these so much as graze on the
grass, their bodies swell and their colour changes. It has indeed been
said that the eater of frogs will void his semen until he perishes.

The yellow species of frog is the most harmful.

Now, if doctors have forbidden their use through pity for mankind,
how could it be that the Prophet failed to do so, whom all Believers
know is kind and compassionate (as I swear by my father and my mother) ?

Part Three

Section XIII

FEVER

The Treatment of Fevers by Cold Water

Physicians say that the drinking of cold water during fevers at the
beginning of the disease weakens and disintegrates the power of the
sick man.

An apochryphal tradition says that Bin ( Umr said: Fever is from
the boiling of Hell; so cool it down with water. This saying is repeated
by al-Bukhari and by Muslim.

A similar traditional saying from Bin ‘Abbas is: Fever is from the
boiling of Hell; so put it out with the water of Zamzam. This saying is
reported by al-Bukhari.

From Asma bint Abu Bakr comes this story: A severe headache used
to cause a certain woman to roll at times in the dust. She would then
call for water and pour it over her forehead. Then she would say: Verily

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the Prophet said: Cool it with water because it is the breath of Hell. This is
reported by al-Bukhari and by Muslim.

This saying of the Prophet “Cool it with water” is particularly applicable
to the people of the Hedjaz. For if heat overcomes them, they drink cool
water or they bathe in it because it helps them against the heat of their
land. Cold water cools down fever and breaks its heat and burning fire.
And the phrase of the Prophet “ breath of Hell ” means the violence of
the heat and its boiling. And may Almighty God in His mercy protect us
from this. The saying of the Prophet “water of Zamzam ” shows that
there is a special excellence in this water. For waters differ with different
diseases or from the point of view of a blessedness within them. For the
Prophet said: When the water of Zamzam is drunk, the emaciated and
Folio 128 the feverish are cured.

The Prophet also said according to Anas: If any one of you is feverish,
pour cold water upon him on three successive nights at dawn. This
tradition is reported by al-Juzi.

Abu Harfra says that the Prophet said: Fever is a bellows from the
bellows of Hell; so put it away from you by cold water. This is related
by Bin Maja.

From Sumra comes the saying: The removal of fever is the removal
of a piece of fire; so cool it down with water.

It was the habit of the Prophet when he was feverish to call for bottles
of water and to pour the water over his head and to wash. This tradition
is repeated by al-Hassan, quoting Sumra.

‘Ayesha reports the tradition that the Prophet said: Be generous in
illness and pour over me seven water-skins of water.

From Rafa‘ bin Hadij comes this saying: If a bout of fever befall any
one of you, verily fever is a portion of fire; so put it out with cold water.
This tradition is reported by al-Tirmidhi.

Galen said: If a young man who is fat, bathes in water in the hot season,
that will not be good for him.

I maintain that it is the general opinion of doctors that water is the
best of drinks. For it drives away hot fever by reason of its subtlety, the
speed of its penetration, and its lightness upon the constitution.

In some conditions water requires to be made yet colder and then
ice is added to it. Or its strength and power of penetration have to be
increased: then vinegar is added. Or its damp and power of reaching
far-distant organs must be augmented: then vinegar is rectified with
sugar and sugar with vinegar. The result is known as an oxymel. And
this is a most useful remedy for those afflicted with a febrile materies
morbi on account of its dissecting and aperient properties.

Varieties of Fevers

There are several varieties of fever. One is a diurnal fever which will
often finish its course in a single day, but may continue for three days.
This variety is connected with the humours and is known as a Putrid
Folio 129 Fever. When the fever is connected with the noble organs, it is called

a Hectic Fever. Often this fever is a coctant for thick humours and will
cure paralysis and dissolve colic and so forth.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

141

From Abu Harira comes the report that he said: I was once talking
to the Prophet, saying that fever was a curse to a man. But he replied:
It is not a curse, for it cleanses sin in the like manner that fire cleanses
the dross of iron. This saying is repeated by Ibn al-Maja.

And from Jabir comes this: The Prophet entered upon Umm Safib or
Umm Musayyab and said: Why are you shivering? And she replied:
From fever. In it there is no blessing from God. And he said: Do not
revile it. Verily fever takes away the sins of the sons of Adam just as
bellows remove the dross of iron. Muslim reports this saying.

Tradition says that the Prophet said: Fever for one day is the equivalent
of fasting for one year.

From al-Hassan comes the tradition that the Prophet said: Verily
there will be removed from the worshipper all his sins if he suffer fever
for a night. So fever has become of use both to the body and to the Faith.
And this is why the Prophet has forbidden the reviling of fever.

Signs of various Fevers

The signs of a fever due to Blood are redness of the face and eyes.
Treatment is venesection, scarification, and the drinking of sour infusions.

The signs of a fever due to Bile are a yellowness of the face, insomnia,
the vomiting of bile, and bitterness of the mouth. Treatment is the taking
of syrup of prunes and sour meat dishes. Cases accompanied by much
thirst should use green melons, milk, and beans or purslain seeds. The
constitution should be softened with infusions which set up a flow.
If insomnia is predominant, instil into the nostrils of the sick man oil
of violets. If the faculties become weak, feed him with chicken soup.
If the disease is prolonged, set up a flow with the linctus of rhubarb.
When the fever declines, then make the patient enter a hot bath and
Folio 130 let him eat the flesh of lambs.

The signs of a fever due to Phlegm are diminished thirst, a leaden
complexion, and rigors. Treatment. For the rigors use emetics and make
the patient drink hot water with an oxymel of any sort. At the same times
soften the constitution with softening enemata and later with linctus
of cassia. He should be fed on chicken meat rendered sour and on car-
thamus.

The signs of a fever due to Spleen are a lividity of the complexion
or face and of the urine and excessive insomnia. The urine at the onset
resembles barley water. Treatment. The best foods for this patient are
those containing damp-producing and sleep-producing properties. The
best food both in quality and quantity is a drink made with one ounce
of one of the above mixed with half an ounce of sugar. The constitution
should also be set aflow with decoctions. The patient should be fed on
the flesh of kids, fresh fish, and pulse.

All these feveis are accompanied by vertigo. The distinguishing feature
of a Bilious Fever is the periodicity of the fever, for there is fever on one
day and none on the next, that is, it is a Tertian Fever. A Splenic Fever
also has a periodicity, having fever one day and then none for the next
two days, that is, it is a Quartan Fever. Whilest in a Phlegmonous Fever
the fever occurs every day, that is, it is a Quotidian Fever.

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Folio 13 1

Quran 18.31
Folio 132

All types of fever should be treated with emetics at the onset. The
remainder of the treatment has been described above.

But if the fever is connected with the basic organs and is accompanied
by a cough, unremitting fever, distaste for taking any food with sweats
and general weakness, then barley water full of pearls of barley must
be used. If the patient is overcome with thirst, he must take pills of
camphor if his strength is good enough; otherwise he must not be given
them. Let him take plenty of hot baths and let him use a room to which
no fresh air has access. Let him not cease from this nor from the use
of thin chicken soup, the flesh of kids, gravy from fowls in which white
bread is soaked made from barley or cheese with poppy heads. And if
with all this his condition grows worse, then expect death. And God is
all-knowing.

Part Three
Section XIV

TREATMENT OF CERTAIN MINOR MALADIES

As for Headache, it may be due to Blood, or to Phlegm or to Spleen.

We have already discussed its treatment in the section about drugs
for fever. But in addition in cases of cold headache the patient should
smell musk, amber and coriander. He should be given honey to eat. He
should take hot ebullients and hot enemata. He should eschew draughts
of cold water and cold winds. If he is obliged to use emetics, he should
take the Hiccory Pill.

The above regime should be followed in all cold diseases of the brain,
such as epilepsy, apoplexy, palsy, facial paralysis, tremors, hemicrania,
flaccid paralysis, coma, and catarrhal flows from the brain whether anterior
or posterior.

Prescription for a Hiccory Pill. Take one drachm of hiccory, one of
white turbith, one sixth of a drachm of scammony, and two parts of
tragacanth. Prepare from these one pill to be taken last thing at night.

We have already related and Abu Harira has reported the tradition
that whenever a sudden headache descended upon the Prophet, he would
dye his head with henna. Bin Maja speaks of this same tradition. And we
have already discussed the benefits conferred by henna.

Anyone who seeks good health must avoid heat and cold in excess,
violent winds, smoke and dust, much crying, straining of the eyes in
trans-scribing and too much reading of tiny manuscript. This last should
indeed be done but rarely; although if done in small amount it renders
the vision keen. A man should also avoid looking at shining objects,
at the orb of the sun, and at whatever is pure black or pure white.

The best colour for the eyes is green. Anas reports that of colours
the most pleasing to the Prophet was green. And Almighty God Him
self has said: They shall wear green robes.

Green is said to have been the colour of the dress of the people of
Syria in Paradise. Bin ‘Abbas says that the Prophet admired any green

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

143

Folio 133

See folio 79

See folio 85

thing because it increased the power of vision. And the same is true
of running water according to al- Bukhari. It helps the eyes by strength-
ening them. It also guards the health of the eyes, just as does scented
antimony. But that subject we have already discussed.

As for bleeding from the Nose, this should not be checked unless it
proves wasteful and weakening. And in this case the patient should
take syrup of apples and camphor and be restored to strength by chicken
soup.

Now, the Teeth can be protected by the avoidance of chewing the
various kinds of gums, of cracking hard objects by the teeth, of eating
very cold foods, and of extreme cold, above all after eating hot food.
Similarly, hot food following the drinking of cold water should be avoided.
Excessive use of the tooth-pick ruins the teeth and hurts the mouth.
So* do all foods that need grinding. The eating of the green leaves of leeks
is bad because of a special property that they contain.

The treatment of a Cough is to take barley water, sweet ebullients,
pomegranites prepared with oil of almonds, milk pap, and lightly boiled
eggs. Forbidden should be the eating of snow, flesh meat, and all things
that are acid and salt.

But as for Pain in the Liver and Colic, this often occurs from eating
too much of flatulency-forming food, such as peas, lentils, dry beans,
and the entry of food upon food. Treatment. Emesis, avoidance of the
above foods, use of the confection of roses with warm water, softening
and sour enemas if required, purgative electuaries of quince, anointing
of the liver and belly with oil of roses and mastich, fomentations with
hot bran, and bathing with hot water.

The treatment of Gripes and Tenesmus is to boil juice of mallows
with syrup of apples. Use this hot combined with whole psyllium seeds.
Squeeze all this into hot water in which poppy heads have been boiled.
If the spasm is excessive, the Suppositorium Tenesmi should be inserted.
The patient should take soup made from old and unripe grapes. If the
diarrhoea is excessive, take syrup of pomegranites with powdered pome-
granite seeds.

The treatment of Pleurisy. We have already described the treatment
of False Pleurisy. True Pleurisy should be treated with ebullients and
a plaster of flour of barley, white mallow, and violet blossom. The patient
should take barley water with oil of almonds. And if the bowels are
constipated, he should take cassia pods and refined sugar.

As for the treatment for Dropsy, we have already discussed it.

Abu Harira reports the tradition that the Prophet ordered a physician
to incise the abdomen of a man who had a chronic disease of the belly.
He said: O Prophet, will the Art of Medicine be of any help ? And the
Prophet said: If such treatment has ever been successful, then let this
method of treatment be also used in the case of a man who in the opinion
of doctors ought to be treated by paracentesis because he has the dropsy.

Among the varieties of Dropsy is one known as Ascites. This is the
worst type, though others say that the type known as Anasarca is worse.

As for Enuresis, this occurs mainly among children and the aged.
It is due to cold and it is therefore expedient to increase their outer
garments. Such should break their fast off gum-incense, mastich and

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CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 134

See folio 38

Folio 135

honey and should avoid soups, cold dishes, water melons, sugar cane
and similar things.

The treatment of Piles is to take a Syrup of Spinach with hot water
and to eat preparations of marsh mallow, common mallow, and spinach.
The patient should also take foods that soften the constitution as far
as possible and he should avoid dry bread and all absorbents.

The treatment of Rheumatism is by emesis and the avoidance of
flesh food, especially fish, milk and fresh fruit. The patient should take
honey and hot things, if his rheumatism is due to cold, and he should
use purgative pills.

The treatment of Sciatica has already been described under the letter
A with the recommendation of the Prophet on the subject. Tradition
says that a certain Jew complained of sciatica. So he gave up camels
milk and camel meat and made them unlawful for himself. And so he
was cured. Then he made them forbidden to his children also. And I too
maintain that very harmful for pain in the joints and in the sciatic nerve
are milk and meat, above all the flesh of camels and cows. Avicenna
says that flesh and wine are forbidden to sufferers from rheumatism.

It should be known that the word Sciatica means the arising of pain
in the hip joint, passing down from the buttocks to the thigh and even
extending to the heel. The longer it lasts the greater the pain. The leg
wastes.

Part Three
Section XV
CAUTERISATION

Should cauterisation be done ? There are two replies to this question
and both are verified. One tradition related by Jabir of the Prophet
states that he said: If there is any choice in your treatment whether you
prefer scarification or branding by fire, then I personally do not like
branding. This saying is extracted by al- Bukhari and by Muslim.

A tradition related by Ibn'Abbas states that the Prophet said: If the
final cure lies between scarification, draughts of honey, and cauterisation
with fire, then I utterly forbid cauterisation. This tradition is related by
al-Bukhari.

In his Traditions and in his books on Paracentesis and Cauterisation
al-Bukhari said: Abu ‘Abd-Ullah al-Marzi said with regard to other
congestive diseases whether due to Blood or Bile or Phlegm or Spleen,
as we have already related, that the cure of those due to Blood is the
letting of blood and the cure of the other congestive diseases is by drugs
that set up a flow suitable to the particular humour in question.

The Prophet gave precedence to scarification for the letting of blood
over cauterisation and set phlebotomy next after scarification. He also
gave precedence to syrup of honey over purgatives.

If drugs fail, only then should the physician have recourse to branding.
It is to be used when the constitution defeats the strongest of medicines

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

and no drug succeeds. The Prophet has taught us what to do by the
following tradition on the basic treatment of simple diseases when he
said: Verily the violence of fever is from the boiling of Hell: so cool
it down with water. His sayings and the written verses will be discussed
later, if God wills.

Jabir reports the following tradition: Sa‘d bin Mu‘az suffered from
conjunctivitis due to scabies. So the Prophet let blood from his arm by
means of a mishqas arrow. The swelling recurred, so he let blood a second
time. Muslim reports this tradition.

‘Amran bin ul-Hasbayni reports the tradition that the Prophet forbade
branding, saying: We were afflicted with a disease and we branded our
selves, but we did not succeed nor did the branding benefit us. This
tradition is reported by Abu Dawud, by al-Nasa‘f and by Ibn Maja.

From Bin ‘Abbas comes the tradition that the Prophet said: Of my
followers 70,000 will enter Paradise, not reckoning those who do not
consult soothsayers, who pay no attention to bad omens, and who do
not use branding but rely on their Master. Al-Bukhari and Muslim
report this tradition.

Note. With regard to the above traditions the word used by the Prophet
‘ mihjam ’ with the first vowel an ‘ i ’ means “ scarification by a profes-
sional bleeder ”. This word also means “ the dish in which the blood is
Folio 136 collected which exudes after scarification ”. The word ‘ ladha’t ’ with a

dhal-i-mu‘ajama and an ‘ain-i-muhmala, that is with a dotted ‘ Dh ’ and
an undotted ‘ ‘Ain ’, means “ a mild cauterisation ”.

Furthermore, the Akhal Vein is a vein in the middle of the fore-arm.
It is used for venesection.

The word ‘ mishqas ’ with the initial vowel an ‘ i ’ means “ a long
thin arrow ”. A broad arrow is known as ‘ al-Ma‘fla ’.

The word ‘ hasama ’ means “ to let blood by scarification ”.

Finally, the phrase ‘ do not consult soothsayers ’ means that one should
not ask another to recite verses as a charm. And the phrase ‘ pay no
attention to bad omens ’ refers to people who pay attention to omens
which are opposed to the Faith. And blessed is the Faith.

Among the traditions which we have just described some seem to
authorise cauterisation and others seem to forbid it. The correct view
is mid-way between. The prohibition is due to the thoughts which those
cauterised have when they think that it is the cauterisation itself which
checks the evil and believe that had cauterisation not been performed
the patient would have been lost. It is cauterisation practiced with this
idea that has drawn the prohibition. But on the other hand cauterisation
is authorised when it is considered to be the occasion of the cure and not
the essential cause of the cure. For it is God alone Who cures and gives
health, not cauterisation or drugs.

In this matter many people hold views which show their doubt of this
truth. For instance they will say: So-and-so had he taken this medicine,
would not now be dead. And again: Had so-and-so stayed in his own
country, he would not have been killed.

It is safe to assume that cauterisation is prohibited if it is to be employed
by way of prophylaxis against disease and before there is need of it.
For this is reprehensible. But it becomes admissible in case of necessity.

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It is equally safe to assume that the prohibition is against having
recourse to the cautery before having full confidence in God. It may
also be assumed that it may be practiced and is fully permitted when
there is no substitute e.g. when a wound has penetrated to an artery
and the haemorrhage will not normally stop except by cauterisation by
fire. For the pulsation of the artery prevents its clotting. But when a
cautery is applied, the cauterisation produces at the mouth of the wound
a scab so that the blood which exudes from the mouth of the vessel,
clots and adheres to the opening and thus checks the haemorrhage.
Such cicatrisation is effected by the Faculty with the permission of God.
In such circumstances surely no one can be blamed for having recourse
to cauterisation.

Said al-Khattabi: Verily the Prophet cauterised Sa'd to prevent a
haemorrhage which would have been fatal.

It is with the same intention that one cauterises the wound after the
amputation of a hand or a foot. Cauterisation in these cases becomes of
obligation.

It is a useful tradition that Bin ‘Umr used to apply the cautery for
facial palsey. Abu Zabayr relates as follows: I saw Bin ‘Umr one day
and he was branding the forehead of a man with a slight facial palsey.
Now, facial palsey is produced by a thick materies morbi. It is classified
among the chronic diseases and the matter of this disease cannot be
dissolved by drugs. Hence branding under such circumstances is the
best treatment for it.

Part Three
Section XVI

BLOWS, FRACTURES & BITES

The Treatment of Sprains

The treatment of a Sprain is the evacuation of the blood, the leaving of
the tissues intact, and the application of ice.

Jabir relates: I once cupped the Prophet on his hips because of a sprain
from which he was suffering. Abu Dawud also relates this tradition.

A sprain is defined as a weakness without a fracture or dislocation
of the bones. The treatment of a sprain also involves a strengthening
of the site by an ointment made from leaves of sesame and myrtle mixed
together in a dish.

The Treatment of Fractures

Said al-Jabr: ‘Ali broke one of the bones of his fore-arm, so I set it.
I enquired of the Prophet who said: Anoint it and continue to apply
the ointment while the arm is in the splint until it has healed.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

147

Rabies & the Bites of Mad Dogs

Rabies is a form of madness which occurs in dogs when the temperament
changes to a splenic temperament.

Signs of rabies are: the eyes are red, the tongue hangs out of the mouth
with much slobbering, the animal keeps his head low and near the ground,
his ears hang relaxed, his tail droops between his legs, and his coat is
shaggy. The dog runs about continuously and staggers like a drunken
Folio 138 man. He will attack any one he sees. He barks but little and then with

a hoarse voice. Other dogs avoid him and deny him food. He will fly
from water as soon as he sees it.

If a rabid dog bite a man, the symptoms which occur in the man are
the same as those seen in the rabid dog, as far as can be. The disease
which then developes in the man is one of the most serious of diseases.
The man fears water when he sees it. He will shun in fear any person
he views or who approaches him. He sees himself in a mirror with the
face of a dog.

Said the Prophet: If a rabid dog has put its nose into one of your pots,
then wash this pot seven times, one of these times being with earth.
Another version of this tradition runs: Seven times, the first being with
earth. This is a very sound tradition because the poison of rabies is
transmitted in the saliva. Hence, when a dog has thrust its nose into
a vessel, the poison passes into the vessel with the saliva, just as it passed
into the body with the bite. The watery materies morbi acts upon whoever
eats from that vessel in the same way that it acts upon anyone who has
been bitten. And that is why the Prophet has commanded men to wash
any vessel into which a rabid dog has dribbled in order to shut off every
passage of danger. Such is the vigilance of the Prophet over his People.

Anyone bitten by a rabid dog begins to fear water after an interval of one
or two weeks up to six months. If there is doubt whether the biting
dog is rabid or not, take a piece of bread, sprinkle on it some blood that
runs from the bite, and give it to another dog to eat. If it eat the bread,
then the dog that has bitten the man, is not rabid. If it refuses to eat
the bread, then the first dog is rabid.

Treatment requires that first the site of the bite be excised and then
that cups be applied. Violent suction must be exerted and care taken that
Folio 139 the wound remain open so that the morbid matter may come out. The

patient should be given barley water and the meat of young kids to eat
and he should be made to rest.

Sometimes the bitten person will pass in his urine little fleshy bodies
of an extraordinary shape, looking somewhat like tiny dogs.

It is most necessary that the man who sucks out the air from the cups
during the cupping, should anoint his mouth with oil of roses during
the act of sucking.

Treatment of Bites by Serpents

It is necessary to deprive the bitten person of sleep, because during
sleep the poison slides into the depths of the body. Cups should be

148

CYRIL ELGOOD

See folio 94

Folio 140

Quran 113.2
Quran 2.255

applied to the site of the bite and the air be sucked out, just as has been
described above. The letting of blood is beneficial if the poison has
spread all over the body, but it is of no use in the early stages.

Scorpion Bites

Two conditions are produced by the bite of a scorpion, one hot and
the other cold.

In both cases the treatment is to split open the scorpion and to apply
and fasten it very tightly over the bitten spot. Make the patient eat the
kernels of filbert nuts and orange pips. This is sanctioned by experience.

We have already mentioned that the Prophet had water and salt applied
to the bite of a scorpion. Tradition says that the Prophet killed the scorpion
and then called for salt and water. This he proceeded to pour over the
bitten finger.

A Night-Prayer for Protection

Whoever at the onset of night recites the words of God in their entirety,
puts himself thereby under the divine protection against noxious creatures.
Such a man will receive no harm from scorpions until the morning has
safely dawned.

Similarly whoever of the Faithful says at the onset of night: In the
Name of God the pronunciation of Whose Name protects against all
evil both on Earth and in the Heavens, the God Who knows and hears
all things, whosoever makes this ejaculation will suffer no harm until
the following morning.

Part Three

Section XVII

ON THE RIDDING OF NIGHT-FLYING INSECTS

It was once the custom of doctors to keep within their houses cats,
storks, peacocks and hedge-hogs and to place lamps and lanterns inside
their houses at night time so that night-flying insects will fly upon these.
All these measures are against the harm that such insects do.

The Prophet differed from such people when he said: When you sleep,
put out your lamps. And again when he said: Do not leave a fire in your
house while you sleep. He also said: Fire is your enemy: put it out while
you sleep. And again he said: The Fawaysaqa often falls upon the wick
and sets fire to the people in the house. All these traditional sayings
are authentic.

The Prophet also ordered us to protect ourselves against the evil
“ of what He has created ” by a full recitation of the words of God and
by reciting the verse of the Chair.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

! 49

Said ‘Ayesha: The Prophet when going to bed used to join his hands
together palms upward and blow on them. Then he would recite the
Quran 112.1 verse beginning: Say, God is One and then the two chapters that begin:
I seek refuge. Then he would rub with his palms what he could of his
Quran 1 13 and 1 14 body, beginning with his head and face and front of the body. This he
did three times. On this there is general agreement.

Blowing is similar to spitting but is without saliva. For spittle contains
saliva. Yet the reverse has been asserted, ‘Ayesha was asked about this
blowing of the Prophet and replied: It is like the spitting of people with
raisins.

The Prophet said: Whoever reads at night-fall the two final verses

Quran 2.285 & 286 of the Chapter of the Cow, this suffices him. On this there is general

agreement. It is also said that this will suffice against every evil.

The Prophet himself used to say: O God, save me from your punish-
ments on the Day of the Great Awakening of Your servants. And when
he woke up in the morning he would say: Thanks be to God Who has
given life to us after death: in Him is our Resurrection.

Folio 141 The Prophet ordered that we should seek forgiveness at bed-time and

recite our beads and the praises of God and the magnifying of Him,

Quran 2.255 according to the well known tradition. He also said: Whoever reads

the Verse of the Chair at bedtime, on him there rests the protection of
God until he awakes. This tradition is reported by al-Bukharf.

So the Prophet has pointed out to us these good and blessed and pro-
tective words which replace those defences by fire and animals. And
thus he has protected us in this world by these good and blessed words.

And for us there remains a reward in the next world and this comes
through faith in him and through his blessing.

Part Three
Section XVIII
THE PLAGUE

Asama bin Zayd asked Sa'd: What did you hear from the Prophet
about the Plague ? He replied: The Prophet said: The Plague is an impurity
sent upon the tribe of Bani Israel and those who were before you. If you
hear of plague in the land, go not there. But if the plague has occurred
and you are there already, flee not away from it. Al-Bukharf and
Muslim extracted this tradition.

The saying of Anas is well known: Plague is a martyrdom for all Moslems.
Al-Bukharf and Muslim extracted this tradition.

Plague is death from pestilence: so wrote the author of Al-Sahah fi
il-Tibb.

The Bubo of Plague

A Bubo is the name given to a fatal inflammation which turns black
and makes green the surrounding areas. It frequently occurs in the arm-
pits and behind the ears.

CYRIL ELGOOD

I S°

Among the traditions of ‘Ayesha is this saying: A plague-stricken man
is a martyr.

I once asked: What is the sign of one stricken by the plague ? Came
the answer: Like the swollen gland of a camel, coming out in the groin
and the arm-pit.

Avicenna said: If the eruption occurs in the soft tissues in the axilla
or behind the ear, it is called the Plague. It is a corrupt, infected, poisonous
Folio 142 blood, often mixed with sanguinous pus, which makes for the heart.

Its specific action is fatal. It produces fainting fits and palpitations. The
Red Plague is less dangerous than the Yellow Plague. True Plague is
the Black Plague from which no one escapes. It increases the pestilence.

Discussion on the Statement of the Prophet

In the prohibition of the Prophet against approaching the Plague
there are two advantages. First, no one will breath corrupted and infected
air and so get ill. And secondly, no one will go near a sufferer and so
increase the calamity. Hence the two commands. Abu Dawud reported
that the Prophet said: From contact comes destruction.

According to Ibn Qatayba the Prophet meant by the word ‘ contact ’
the approach of a person to Plague and pestilence. And his saying “ Do
not flee away from it ” is a proof of dependence upon God and of trust
in Him. It is also stated that the Prophet forbade movement towards
the pestilence because movement changes the constitution and weakens
the faculties, as is proved by the saying of ‘Ayesha when she said: Whenever
the Prophet moved to Medina, he felt indisposed. This tradition is from
Abu Bakr and Bilal. And if the faculties are weakened and the consti-
tution changed, then the effects of the pestilential air is speedier.

As for the saying of the Prophet “ if it occurs in the land and you are
there already, flee not away from it ”, this is because when a great disease
such as this falls upon the land, it weakens all bodies and produces an
effect within them, just as movement weakens all bodies. And so the
disaster grows. And that is the reason for this second saying of the Prophet.

‘Ayesha said: I asked the Prophet about the Plague and he replied:
It is a torture sent by Almighty God upon whom He wills. And upon
Believers God has made it a mercy. For no one once the Plague has
broken out in his country, would sit patiently without reckoning that
Folio 143 he knows that it will not befall him unless it is written for him by God

to play the part of a martyr. This tradition is related by al-Bukhari.

It is stated that Plague and Pestilence are one and the same disease
and that it is a universal disease.

The cause of Plague is a spontaneous putrefaction, like the putre-
faction of stagnant water which is due either to causes from the earth e.g.
a warrior left unburied, or to causes from the sky e.g. scarcity of rain
or a shower of meteorites and stones. When the putrefaction occurs in
the air, the humours also putrefy. And thus it spreads through most
of creation and through most people to the fullest possible extent.

In this disease tenesmus is very painful. It is said that in an hour
20,000 of the Bani Israel died from it. Others say 70,000. Possibly these
were the very first to undergo its pains. And when God said: Have you

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 151

Quran 2.243 not considered those who went forth from their homes by their thousands
in fear of death ?, He was referring to the Plague.

Al-Tammi said that Syria remained an asylum from the plague until
the terminal days of Ibn Marwan, especially Damascus and Jordan.
It is said that the uncle of al-Saffah was making a speech at Damascus
and in the course of it said: God has been benevolent towards you in our
time by lifting the plague from you. One of the audience called out:
God is too just to give us both you and the plague.

According to Jabir bin ‘Ati'k there is an apochryphal tradition that
martyrdom is of six categories — i. being killed for the sake of God;
ii.the martyrdom of being struck by the plague; iii.the martyrdom of
being burned; iv.the martyrdom of being affected by pleurisy; v.the
martyrdom of abdominal disease; and vi.the martyrdom of a woman
who dies in labour. This tradition is related by Abu Dawud and also
occurs in the book called al-Muwatta\

It is reported that 4 Abd-ul- Rahman ‘Awf said: I heard the Prophet
say: If the pestilence affects a land while you are there, do not go away
through fear; and if you hear of it being in a country, do not go there.

Folio 144 This tradition is related by al-Bukharf and Muslim.

Pestilence ebbs and flows. Avicenna said: Everyone who wishes to
take precautions against the pestilence should remove from his body
all waste moistures. He should go hungry. He should not go to the hot
bath. He requires rest and must quieten the excitement of the humours.
For it is impossible to flee from the plague without movement and all
movement is harmful.

Thus the medical meanings flash from the sayings of the Prophet.

The story of ‘Umr is well known. When he left for Syria, he had an
attack of epilepsy. So he returned to a village in the Wadi Tobuk. This
is said to be on the frontier of the Hedjaz and to be thirteen stages distant
from Medina.

Part Three
Section XIX

ON THE PRACTICE OF AL-GHAYLA
(Coitus with a lactating woman)

AND AL-‘AZALA (Coitus Interruptus)

There is a report of Asma bint Yazfd al-Ansariyya that she said: I
heard the Prophet say: Do not kill your children secretly. For the practice
of al-Ghavla catches the rider and throws him down from his horse.
Abu Dawud and Ibn Maja extracted this tradition.

It is reported of Hadama bint Wahab that she said: I heard the Prophet
say: I had intended to forbid the practice of al-Ghavla. But when I looked
at Rome and Persia, I saw that their children suffer al-Ghavla and that
they are not harmed thereby in the least.

Next they asked the Prophet about the practice of al-'Azala and he
replied: That is a secret infanticide and is referred to by the verse “ when
Quran 81.8 one buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed ”. Muslim extracted
this tradition.

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Commentary on the above

The Imam Malik has stated that the practice of al-Ghavla is when
a man goes into his wife while she is suckling. A child is said to receive
al-Ghayl when the mother has intercourse while suckling him. When a
woman is suckling and becomes pregnant, her milk too is said to receive
al-Ghayl. Such milk will throw down, that is will do harm and destroy,
the infant. For this milk is the corruption of the waste matter of the
menstrual blood. When a woman is pregnant and when a woman is
Folio 145 suckling, her monthly periods cease. When pregnant, the best part of the

blood turns to food, that is, it becomes the nourishment of the foetus,
and the rest — and it is the corrupt part — passes to the breasts. Similarly,
when suckling, all the menstrual blood passes to the breasts and is con-
verted into milk for the nourishment of the child. And that is why the
Prophet said: Do not kill your children secretly. For the practice of
al-Ghavla throws down the child, that is to say, the effect of that corrupt
food continues with a man until puberty and manhood. And should he
be challenged to a test of strength by duel, he will be overwhelmed in the
fight, being weaker than the other.

As for the saying of the Prophet: I had intended to forbid the practice,
such a prohibition was a matter of expediency. He did not after all pro-
hibit it because he knew the resulting harm that comes to a man from
total abstinence and from the struggle with the sexual desire. He also
knew that the children of Persia and Rome not harmed thereby.

But as for the practice of al-'Azala, it is lawful if both parties agree.

Said Jabir: We were practicing withdrawal in the days of the Prophet
and the Quran approved of it. And Muslim said: We were practicing
coitus inter-ruptus and when this reached the ears of the Prophet, he did
not prohibit it. Furthermore he added: There is no soul which is soothed
on the Day of the Resurrection but is not soothed by the approval of it.

Said ‘Urnr: The Prophet forbade the practice of coitus inter-ruptus
with a free woman except with her permission. Ibn Maja reports this
tradition.

It is also lawful for a woman to take medicine to stop the menstrual
flow if she is sure it is not harmful to her. This was the view of Ahmad
in his book of correct traditions. But a party among the ShafPites denied
it, saying that it is unlawful for her because it entails the prevention of
progeny. But indeed as far as the woman is concerned the decision rests
with the man.

Part Three
Section XX

THE EVIL EYE, THE PROOF OF ITS REALITY, &
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CHARMS AGAINST IT

Folio 146

Umm Salma relates the following tradition. The Prophet saw in his
house a slave-girl. On her face was a black scab. The Prophet remarked:

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 1 53

Leave her alone, for in her is the Eye. Al-Bukharf and Muslim extracted
this tradition.

Note: when a man says “ The eye ”, he means the Evil Eye and when
one says “ so-and-so has the Eye ” there is meant that so-and-so has
been struck by the eye of a Jinn.

Abu Harira reports the traditional saying of the Prophet: The Evil
Eye is a fact. This saying was extracted by al- Bukhari.

The Prophet used to fly to God on behalf of al-Hussayn and al-Hassan
for refuge from every devil and all poisons and any Evil Eye.

Note: the word al-hama has a plural form haw am and means

everything endowed with a lethal poison, such as serpents. The word
may even be employed of things which are not fatal, as is shown by his
saying to Ka‘b: Do the insects hurt you or your head? And as for

the phrase Evil Eye or what is endowed with the Evil Eye is meant any-
thing which has a bad effect upon anyone who gazes upon it.

‘Ayesha reports the tradition that the Prophet used to command her
to recite charms against the Evil Eye. This tradition is agreed upon by
all. From her too comes the report: The Prophet ordered anyone who
was possessed by the Evil Eye to perform an ablution and thus he would
wash away the Eye. This was told by Abu Dawud.

From Ibn ‘Abbas comes this. The Prophet said: The Evil Eye is a fact.
If anything existed before Time, then it is the Evil Eye. And you if
you are possessed by the Eye and require a bath, then take a bath. This
tradition was extracted by Muslim and al-Tirmidhf.

From Isma comes an explanation of his saying “ if you require a bath
It means: If any one of you is struck by the Evil Eye and asks for water
in order to perform an ablution, then his request should be granted.
And he who is struck by the Evil Eye will wash his face, his hands, his
elbows and knees, and the tips of his feet, and what lies within his breeches.
He will collect this water in a cup and pour it over the possessor of the
Evil Eye. He will turn the cup upside down behind him on the ground.
It is said that this pouring upon him will bury the effects and he will
Folio 147 be cured by the permission of Almighty God. So it is said by the Imam

Malik in his al-Muwatta>.

Ahmad al-Malik was asked: What does ‘ within his breeches ’ mean ?
He replied: The part of the body adjacent to the breeches. Said Abu
Dawud: I said to Ahmad: What verses are to be read against the Evil
Eye ? He replied: It is a matter of indifference. And he added: One section
of the commentators on the Quran have interpreted the following verse
Quran 68.51 “ and those who believe would almost smite you with their eyes ” to

mean that they would touch you with the Evil Eye.

The Prophet said: If any one of you see anything that he admires
either in himself or in his possessions, let him call down a blessing upon
it. And again he said: Whoever sees some thing which he admires, let
him say: As God wills: there is no Might save in God. And it is told of
him that if he feared that a thing would be smitten by the Evil Eye, he
would say: May God bless it and may no harm come to it. Abu Sa'fd, too,
said that the Prophet used to seek refuge in God against the jinns and
against the Evil Eye. This was told by al-Tirmidhf.

Note: With regard to the word al-saPah (used in the story of the

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CYRIL ELGOOD

slave-girl) this means a black mark on the face. Al-Asmah says that it
is a reddish-black mark. Ibn Halawia says that al-saf'ah means a madman.
In his book on the Eye he defines the disease as a blackness and pallor
in the face.

Said ‘Ayesha: The Prophet allowed verses to be read to resist the Evil
Eye. Al-Bukhari and Muslim both report this tradition. According to
‘Amran ibn Hasbayni he is reported by tradition to have said that all
readings are potent against the Evil Eye and against venom. This was
told by al-Bukhari and Ibn Maja. »

Note: the word ‘ venom ’ Harm here means poison derived from

any poisonous animal. The sting of a scorpion or of a wasp are both called
venom.

It is an agreed tradition that the Prophet read charms for a man in
pain. Anas relates that the Prophet permitted the reciting of verses
against the Evil Eye and against venom and against any rodent ulcer.

Polio 148 This was told by Muslim and Abu Dawud. The term ‘ rodent ulcer ’

Al-Namla means an ulceration which occurs on the forehead.

Some physicians have falsely said that the owner of the Evil Eye sends
from his eyes a poisonous force which makes contact with the eye of another
and so does harm. It is said of some serpents that if their gaze fall upon
a human being, that man will die. In religous laws it is ordered that the
possessor of the Evil Eye should make an ablution on behalf of the person
struck. According to the tradition of Shahab bin Hanif when the Prophet
himself was struck, he ordered the man who had the Evil Eye to perform
an ablution and to pour the water over him. This is related by the Imam
al-Malik in his Al-Muwatta>.

Know then that the recital of verses and the wearing of amulets are
indeed useful if accepted by the patient and received with his consent
as a method of cure. The recitation of charms and the wearing of amulets
are a form of taking refuge with God for the purpose of securing health,
just as is done in the case of medicine. Blameworthy recitations are those
not made in Arabic when the meaning of the words is not known. But
if the words are understood, then the practice is approved. On this
subject c Awf bin Malik is reported to have said: You mean: as we used
to do in the days of the ignorance. And they said: O Prophet, how do you
regard that ? And he said: Recite to me your verses. And after hearing
them he said: All well & good, always provided there is no suggestion
of polytheism in them. This story is reported by Muslim.

In another version it is reported that a man was brought to the Prophet
saying: O Prophet, is it true that you have forbidden the recitation of
charms ? I once recited a verse to charm away a scorpion bite. And the
Prophet replied: Whosoever among you is able to help his brother, let
him indeed do so. This is related by Muslim.

Indeed the prohibition is directed against heretical charms. Or perhaps
the prohibition was once absolute and later was cancelled.

I once asked Abu ‘Abd-Ullah about charms against scorpions. He
saw no harm in the practice provided the words were understood or
were taken from the Quran.

Said Shifa bint 'Abd-Ullah: The Prophet entered the tent while I
was with Hafsa. He said to me: Teach her the charms against the herpes

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

Folio 149

Quran 17.82

Folio 150

Quran 6.99

155

in the same way as I had taught her to write. Abu Dawud relates this.
In this tradition it will be also noted that permission is given for women
to be taught to write.

From ‘Ayesha comes this tradition. When people used to complain
of something such as an ulcer or a wound, the Prophet would put his
finger in the dust. Then he would raise it and say: In the name of God,
the dust of our earth united with the spittle of some of us will cure our
sick with the permission of the Lord. About this traditional saying there
is general agreement.

The phrase ‘ dust of our earth ’ is used because the constitution of dust
is cold & dry and a dessicant for all damp. Now, ulcers and wounds
contain much damp within, which checks the good functioning of the
Faculties and so hinders speedy healing. And as for the phrase ‘ spittle
of some of us ’, that is our saliva, this means that if saliva be added to dust
and dried and then placed upon ulcers or wounds, these will be cured
by the permission of God. On this subject there are many traditions.

On the subject of reading verses from the Quran, ‘Ali is reported
to have said: The best medicine is the Quran. Al-Tirmidhi reports this
tradition.

Said Almighty God: We reveal of the Quran that which is a healing
and a mercy to the Believers. The word ‘ of ’ does not refer to certain
parts only, but the meaning is that all that is revealed in the Quran is
curative. The Quran cures from physical diseases if used for that purpose
just as it cures from error, ignorance and doubt. It will guide a man
lost in amazement. It cures the heart by removing ignorance from it:
it cures the body by removing sickness from it. Know that sound bodies
are found with sound hearts. Make healthy your heart and healthy will
be your body. Said the Prophet: There is within the body a lump of
flesh. If this lump of flesh is healthy, then the whole body is healthy.
This is a traditional saying.

We have already discussed reading from the Quran as a cure. Said
‘Ayesha: Whenever any member of the household of the Prophet was
sick, he used to recite over him the two terminal chapters of the
Quran.

A tradition is reported by Dar Qatni in his List of Authorities, quoting
Ibn 'Abbas, that the Prophet said: He who complains of the toothache,
let him put his finger on the tooth and read the verse: He it is Who has
brought you into being from a single soul, then there is for you a resting
place and a depository: indeed We have made plain the communications
for a people who understand.

If some words are endowed with special properties and are helpful
by the permission of Almighty God, then what are you to think of the
very words of Almighty God Himself? Wrote Ahmad: If words from
the Quran are written down upon something and then washed off and
the washings drunk, all well & good. Again, if a man write a text from
the Quran and put it inside a vessel and then make a sick man drink
from it or even if he only reads something from the Quran over the vessel
and the sick man drinks from it, this too is well & good. Similarly if a
person reads something from the Quran over water and then sprinkles
this water over a sick man or in the case of a difficult labour, if a man

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CYRIL ELGOOD

writes something from the Quran and makes the woman drink it, all
this is well & good.

Ibn ‘Abbas reports a traditional saying: If a woman finds difficulty in
giving birth, let her take a clean vessel and write inside it the following
Quran 46.3s verses: On the day that they shall see what they are promised, they shall
be as if they had not tarried. And again this: On the day that they see it,
Quran 79.46 it will be as though they had not tarried. And again this verse: In their

Quran 12.111 histories there is certainly a lesson for men of understanding. This writing

will then be washed off and the woman will be given the washings to
drink and some poured over her abdomen.

According to the Traditions of Muhanna Ahmad once gave judgement
that it was lawful to free one who is enchanted from his enchantment
by means of any sort of medicine and that it is quite possible to remove
magical enchantment. For when the Prophet was bewitched, he drove
it out and loosed himself and this loosening of himself was accomplished
Folio 1 51 by medicine.

In common speech the word ‘ enchantment ’ means a change in the
form of a thing. Thus we say ‘ What has bewitched you like this ? ’
meaning ‘ What has brought about this change in you * ?

Enchantment is also used in the sense of sheer fraud. But on the other
hand an enchanter may be a very wise man.

Now, enchantments may take the form of amulets containing written
verses or the weaving of spells or of words spoken over a person by an
enchanter or of words written down by him. And so an effect is produced
in the body of the man bewitched or in his heart or indirectly within
his brain. In fact by these means a man may be killed or made sick or
even removed from his women-folk. It may indeed come between a man
and his wife and cause one to hate the other and destroy their mutual
love.

Said ‘Ayesha: I used to imagine that the Prophet had done something
which he had in fact not done. I seek refuge from it in God and His mercy.

It was said to Ahmad: Physicians maintain that nothing can enter a
human being, by which is meant all the inhabitants of the earth. He
replied: That is mere babble, for the Prophet has said: Verily the Devil
runs within a human being just as his blood runs within him. But I,
the author of this work, maintain that the bodies of jinns are subtle
bodies and that it is impossible for the humours of jinns to mix with human
souls in the manner that blood and phlegm mix in human bodies with
all their impurities.

When the news about ‘Umr was late in reaching Abu Musa, he went
to a woman within whose belly was a devil. He asked her about ‘Umr
and she replied: I will tell you when my devil gives me the answer. Then
he arrived and she put the question to him. And the devil replied: I left
him preparing camels as alms.

This subject is a very wide one and many are the stories, too many
to be related in this book. And God knoweth all.

On the Wearing of Amulets

Ahmad wrote that amulets are an abomination. He said: He who wears
an amulet comes to depend upon it. Harab relates that he once discussed

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

*57

this subject with Ahmad: I said: With regard to the wearing of amulets
Folio 1 52 is there anything about it in the Quran or elsewhere ? And Ahmad replied:

Bin Mas'ud abominated them. He also quoted ‘Ayesha and other women,
saying that they were complacent in the practice. Ahmad himself was
far from strict.

From ‘Abd-Ullah bin ‘Umr comes the following tradition: If any one
of you suffer from sleeplessness, let him say: I take refuge in all the words
of God from His anger, from punishment, from the evil of His worshippers,
and from the instigations of the devils, should they come. Surely these
words will not fail you.

‘Abd-Ullah bin ‘Umr used to teach these words to his sons when they
grew up and while they were still children he used to write them down
as a text and hang it round their necks. Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi'
relate this tradition. These are his very words and al-Tirmidhi added:
It is strange but true. This is also reported by al-Nasan in his Al-Yaum
wa al-Layla.

The phrase about amulets being an abomination and about abandoning
their use, the justification for this depends upon how much belief is
placed upon their intrinsic power to do good or harm and how much
of the words are not understood. This we have discussed above.

With regard to the method of cure by charms, known as al-Nushra,
that is, water over which verses have been recited, then left in the open
and used by the sick man for washing, Ahmad used to say: Bin Mas'ud
abominated that.

Said Abu Dawud in his book called Kitab-ul-Marasi'l ba Ishnadahi:
I asked al-Hassan about the practice of charms. He replied: It was told
me by the Prophet that such is the work of the Devil. And from Jabir
comes the same tradition.

Part Three
Section XXI
SPIRITUAL DRUGS

Abu Harira said: The Prophet saw me when I was asleep. I was writhing
with pain in the stomach. He said: Does your stomach give you pain ?
And I answered: Yes, O Prophet. Then he said: Arise and pray; for
verily in prayer there is cure. This is related by Ibn Maja.

Note: The above words of the Prophet are quoted in Persian. Their
meaning is ‘ Have you a pain in your stomach ? \ For the Persian word
‘ shikam ’ is the equivalent of the Arabic word ‘ batan ’ and ‘ dard ’ is
the same as ‘ waja‘ ’.

With regard to the above tradition wise men say that there are two
Folio 153 things to be learnt from it. The first is that the Prophet could speak

Persian. And the second is that prayer cures pain in the heart, in the
stomach and in the bowel.

In the same way we can deduce three principles. First there is the divine
command to worship. Secondly there is the psychological aspect i.e. the

CYRIL ELGOOD

158

sufferer will forget his pain in his prayer so that his feeling of pain will
grow less and so finally his strength will overthrow the pain and cast it
out. And thirdly it teaches that the best doctor is he who uses all manner
of guile to strengthen the faculties. At one moment he will give strength
by food, at another by setting in motion joy and grief or even hope and
fear. But prayer is the best of them all. If a man is engaged in worship,
he will feel apprehension, fear, hope, nervousness and love. And when
he takes thought of the next life, he will strengthen the faculties, delight
the heart, and drive away disease by this very means.

It is related from some source that the child of ‘Ali once had an abscess.
No one dared to make the necessary incision. His family gave him the
opportunity to go away and say his prayers. Then they were able to make
the incision, for he paid no attention to them, being engrossed in prayer.

Abu Ayub used to order his family to keep silence in the house when
he was there. But when he was at prayer, he used to allow talk, saying:
I can not hear your conversation now, for I am at prayer. Once a wall
of the mosque fell down while he was praying. It did not distract him.

Praying is a natural thing, being both a psychological and a physical
exercise. For it contains within itself standing, bowing, and prostration
as well as pauses, tranquillity, piety, worship, submission, self-humiliation,
and other things. By all these the joints of the body will be moved and
relaxed and in addition most of the organs, especially the stomach and
bowel. How strong is the power of all of these to void the two impurities
Folio 154 and to hasten the exit of food from the stomach.

Said al-Muwaffaq ‘Abd-ul-Latff in his book called Kitab-ul-Arba'fn:
I once saw a group of idlers and vile persons all enjoying good health.
So I enquired the cause of this and learnt that they prayed often, repeating
their prayers during the night. So at last I said to myself: How great
are the benefits of prostration for sufferers from colds and catarrh.

Prostration is indeed of the greatest use in opening the nostrils when
they are blocked. And how great is the help of prostration in casting
forth of the two impurities and the hastening of the exit of food from
the stomach and bowels and in moving waste matter within them and
ejecting it. For within some of the vessels there is food pressing upon
food and one meal will fall upon another. Again, many a time prayer
brings pleasure to the individual and removes bad thoughts and puts
out the fire of anger. Prayer produces humbleness before God and sub-
mission to others. Prayer softens the heart and makes to a man forgiveness
dear and revenge hateful.

Many times when engaged in prayer right opinion enters in and a
good conduct of affairs and a well chosen answer are clear. Often the
worshipper remembers in prayer what he had previously forgotten.
Prayer makes a man think of his beginning and his end and of how he
stands in this world and the next. It will remind him of his personal
reckoning, especially if he stands long in prayer, above all during the
night, when the eyes droop and voices are hushed and the power of the
under-world is weakened and the thirst of the flocks is quenched and the
power of the spiritual world is increased and gloomy thoughts turn
happy. This is what the Prophet meant when he said: O Bilal, let us
take rest in prayer. And again when he said: I have made my comfort in

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

*59

prayer because from it man derives pleasure and the pleasure of it brings
comfort and because prayer contains the excellencies of this world and
of the next.

Folio i5s We have already mentioned the saying of the Prophet: Digest your

food with the name of God and with talk of Him. This is one of the
reasons why the Tarawih prayer is customary.

And so from prayer is derived the best of this world and of the next.
From prayer descends the power emanating from the beatific vision of
God and the Creator. And hence it is that prayer drives out all that is in
the body of sickness and infirmity and discovers to a man his own character
so that he strives to make perfect what is good and to abandon what
is evil.

Sahil bin Sa‘d reports as follows: The Prophet spat into the eye of
‘Ali when he was suffering from ophthalmia and had implored his blessing.
And ‘Ali was cured. Al-Bukhari and Muslim report this tradition.

Indeed this chapter falls short in its description of the virtues of prayer.
But God knoweth best.

It is said that a man complained to the Prophet about pain in his eyes.
Replied the Prophet: Gaze upon the Holy Book.

It is said that a certain man complained to the Prophet about the
stubbornness of his own heart. Replied the Prophet: Stroke the head
of an orphan and give him to eat. The same complaint was once made to
Abu Dawud who said: Visit the sick, accompany corpses, and visit tombs.

Said al-Mariizi: Ahmed related: I once had fever and a man wrote
for me the following charm against fever: In the name of God the Bene-
ficent, the Merciful: by the Name of God: by God Himself. And I confess
that Mahomed is the Prophet of God. Fire be thou cold and agreable
to Ibrahim upon whom harm is intended. But we have defeated them.
O Lord of Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, cure the owner of this writing
by Your skill and by Your power and by Your might. O Lord of Creation.
Amen. So be it.

Said ‘Uthman ibn abi al-'Asi: A man complained to the Prophet of a
pain that he felt in his body ever since he had become a Moslem. The
Folio 156 Prophet replied to him: Put your right hand on the place of the pain

and say seven times: I fly to the protection of God and His power from
the evil which I find. Muslim reports this tradition.

Said Khalid bin al-Walid: O Prophet, I cannot sleep at night by reason
of my insomnia. So the Prophet replied: When you go to your bed to
sleep, then say: O God, Lord of the Seven Heavens and whatsoever is
overshadowed thereby and Lord of the Seven Earths and whatsoever is
upon them and Lord of the Devils and of those they have misled, be for
me a Helper against all the evils of creation if any one of them oppresses
me. May Your help stay long with me. Exalted be Your praise. There
is no God other than You and no God excepting You. Al-Tirmidhi
extracted this tradition.

Note: The word ‘ insomnia ’ means an inability to sleep.

Of Dhalid it is said that he complained to the Prophet of Night Terrors.
The Prophet replied: Shall I teach you certain words that I was taught
by Gabriel ? I fly to the Face of God, the Generous, and to the complete
words of God, more than which no man can do, be he good or bad.

i6o

CYRIL ELGOOD

I fly from the evil which comes down from Heaven, which struts therein,
and from the evil which is on the ground, and from the evil of
temptations by day and by night, and from the evil of calamities of both
day and night, and from all except what brings with it a blessing. O
merciful One. This is reported by al-Tabari.

Prescription for an Electuary which brings peace to the Heart

AND DRIVES OUT ALL APPREHENSION.

This is made up from the eating of only what is lawful, from scrupulous
observance, from refraining from what is doubtfully allowed, from the
control of all bad external emotions and the keeping in check of all internal
feelings, from the governing of oneself by wisdom, from the careful
preservation of secrets, and from humble supplication to God (all Honour
& Glory be His) for preservation from the evils of one’s own lusts and
Folio 157 one’s own devil.

Said Bilal: These evils are removed from you by worship of God by
night, for this was the habit of good men who came before you and
is a preventive of sin and renders you close to God. It is an expiation
of evil deeds and drives away disease from the body. This saying is
reported by al-Tirmidhi.

Another Prescription

It is said that Dhu-ul-Nun walked past some doctors one day. Around
them were a lot of folk, men and women, holding bottles of urine in
their hands. The doctors were writing out prescriptions for them all,
suitable for the disease which each one had.

Said Dhu-ul Nun: I drew near to a doctor and saluted him and he
returned my salutation. Then said I to him: May God have mercy upon
you, pray give me a remedy for sin. The doctor lowered his head for
the space of an hour and then raising it said: If I prescribe for you a
medicine, will you give me your attention and understanding? And I
replied: Yes, God willing.

Then said the doctor: Take the root of poverty with the pollen of
patience with the myrobalan of submission and the belleric of concen-
tration on God together with the tamarinds of humility and the polypody
of sincerity, the rhubarb of purity, and the agaricum of fidelity. Put all
these into the cauldron of sinlessness. Set beneath them the fire of devotion
until the bubbles of wisdom froth up. When these bubbles of wisdom
appear, sieve them in the sieve of remembrance. Then strain into the
goblet of acceptance. Fan with the fan of the praise of God until cool.
When cold, drink and taste the temperance therein. Therafter never will
you commit sin.

So treat your heart with these medicines just as you treat your body
with those drugs. Thus will you enjoy perfect and complete restoration
to health both in this World and the next.

And verily there is no power but God, the High, the Great.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

161

Part Three

Section XXII

A COMPLETE EXPOSITION
ON THE GOOD THAT RESULTS FROM SICKNESS,

ON VISITS TO THE SICK, & OTHER MATTERS.

Verily sickness is the strongest incentive for a Believer to repent, to
speak the truth, to do penance for his sins, and to raise himself Heaven-
wards.

It is told about the Prophet that he said: He who dies on a sickbed,
Folio 158 dies the death of a martyr and is secure against the inquisition of the

tomb. His food descends upon him with the sustenance of Heaven.
So says Ibn Maja.

Abu Harira and Abu Sahd said: The Prophet said: A Believer will
suffer no sickness nor fatigue nor indisposition nor even sorrow to cause
him anxiety nor a thorn to pierce skin without that God will forgive
him his sins by these means. This was extracted by al-Bukhari and
Muslim.

It is related of the Prophet that he said: Verily a Believer should not
fear sickness; for if he knew what he derives from sickness, he would
desire to be sick even to death. This tradition is told by al-Zar.

Said the Prophet: The greater number of my witnesses are the people
of the bed. As for those who died in the battle at Safin God alone knows
what was in their heart. This is related by Bin abi Shabayba.

A tradition says that Jabir said: Fever takes away sin from the Children
of Adam just as bellows remove dross from iron. Abu Harira adds that
the Prophet also said: To whom God intends a blessing, He will make
him partake of it. This is related by al-Bukhari.

Said 'Ayesha: I have seen no one in greater pain than I have seen the
Prophet. Al-Bukhari reports this saying.

Said the Prophet: The people who meet with severe pain are the prophets
of God, the devout and the very best of men. A man is afflicted in pro-
portion to his love of the Faith. Affliction does not cease for the devout
as long as they walk this Earth and until they are free from sin. This
tradition is reported by al-Tirmidhi and it is a fair and sound tradition.

Said the Prophet: If God loves a people, He will give them affliction.

Said the Prophet: There is no sickness or pain which a Believer receives
that is not a penance for his sins whether it be a thorn which pricks
him or a disaster that overwhelms him. Al-Bukhari reports this tradition.

Said the Prophet: No Moslem receives any injury without God shedding
from him his sins, as a tree sheds its leaves. This tradition has been
extracted and many more similar ones.

Folio 159 Said the Prophet: If there had been nought else for the children of

Adam except safety and health, this would have been enough. This
saying is reported by Abu Dawud.

Said al-Thawar: I find that my sight has failed me following good
health. Is it not enough after an illness to be safe and well P

CYRIL ELGOOD

162

When Abu ‘Abbas was an old man he was once asked how he was.
He replied: I am stricken by the disease which is desired by all men.

Said TJmru bin Qamayt:

My back never became weak from standing, only from the passing of

days, day and night.

Greedily did I ask God for health and He gave me safety.

Hence came the saying: O My worshipper, good health forms a link
between you and your self, while sickness makes a link between you
and Me.

A man should indeed pray God for good health. But if God bestows
sickness, it should be received with patience, with resignation and with
thankfulness.

Said al-Harith ul-Majasi: Affliction is for trouble-makers a punish-
ment, for those turning to God a penance, and for the pure in heart a
mark of honour.

Said the Prophet: Visit the sick and set free those held in bondage.
This was related by al-Bukhari.

Said the Prophet: He who visits the sick or visits his brother in religion,
his virtue will be proclaimed, his behaviour will be applauded, and a
high place in Heaven will be assigned to him. This tradition was related
by al-Tirmidhi.

Said the Prophet: A visit to a sick man is only complete when one of
you has put his hand upon his forehead and enquired how he is. This
tradition is related by al-Tirmidhi. According to another version the
visitor will place his hand upon the sick man and will say: How have
you passed the night ? Or: How have you passed the day ?

According to Anas the Prophet used to visit a sick man only after the
third day of his illness. Ibn Maja relates this.

Said the Prophet: Whenever you enter the house of a sick man, talk to
him about his predestined end. This too is related by Ibn Maja.

Said the Prophet: A visitor to a sick man is one standing on the high
road to Heaven. This is related by al-Bukhari.

Folio 160 The Prophet whenever he entered the house of a sick man was in the

habit of placing his hand upon him and saying: Well and good: let there
be a purifying, if God wills. This is related by al-Bukhari.

According to Abu Harira the Prophet excepted three cases which
should not be visited, those suffering from opthalmia, from deafness,
and from boils.

The Prophet said to ( Umr: If you go into the room of a sick man,
beg him to pray to God for you. For the prayer of a sick man is like to
the prayer of the angels.

Said the Prophet: If you enter the house of a sick man, speak only
good words. For verily the angels confirm what you say and open to
him the road to Heaven.

Said the Prophet: Whoever visits a sick man whose predestined hour
has not yet come and says seven times: I beg God the Great, the Lord
of the Mighty Throne, that He cure you, then indeed God will restore
him to health.

It was the habit of the Prophet whenever he visited the sick or if a
sick man was brought to him, to say: O Thou God of the People, drive

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

163

Quran 112.1

Folio 1 61

Folio 162

away all harm and cure the cure which leaves no sickness, which leaves
behind no trace of disease. Then the sick man should read to himself
the opening chapter of the Quran and should say the verse: Say, He Allah
is One, and finally the last two chapters. Then he will blow upon his
hands and rub his face. This was shown in the book called Al-Sahih to
be the practice of the Prophet.

The sick man, too, should pray the prayer of despair which runs:
There is no God but God the Great, the Clement: There is no God but
God, the Lord of the Great Throne: there is no God but God, the Lord
of the Heavens and of the Earth and the Lord of the Throne of Mercy.

It is fitting for the sick man also to say: Indeed my pain is great. The
Prophet used to say: O my head, O my head.

The sick man should show neither fear nor displeasure and should
say: Thanks be to God, before he begins to voice his complaints. Then
they will cease to be complaints.

It is quite proper for the relatives of the sick man to ask his physician
about him. Whenever ‘Ali used to go out from the presence of the Prophet
when he was ill, people used to enquire of him and he used to reply:
He has passed a good night and is well, thanks be to God.

It is improper for a sick man to desire death ; but if he fears to lose his
faith, then it is permitted.

Said ‘Ayesha: I saw the Prophet at the hour when death was near.
Beside him was a cup of water. He put his hand into the cup and rubbed
his face. Then he said: O God, help me against the anguish of death
and its agonies. She also added that he said: O God, forgive me and have
mercy upon me and call me to join the life on high. This is a generally
agreed tradition.

Said Shaykh Muhyi-ul-Din in his book called Kitab-ul-Adhkara:
It is desireable for one who despairs of life to engage much in reading
the Quran and in the remembrance of God. It is most improper for
him to be afraid or ill tempered or quarrelsome or abusive or offensive
in any matter other than religion. He should remember that these are
the last hours of his life in this World. He should strive to finish it well
and aim at fulfilling all his obligations, return his securities and pay
off his debts. He should forgive his relatives, his sons, his slaves, his
neighbours and friends, and those with whom he has had business rela-
tions. He should be thankful to Almighty God with resignation and with
good thoughts towards Him, that He may have mercy upon him and
forgive him. And so God will allow him to escape from his due punish-
ment and from the worship still owing.

Then the sick man should ask God for forgiveness and pardon. He
should cause to be read to him verses full of hope and sayings full of
confidence and the stories of holy men. He should make disposition of
the affairs of his children. He should call to memory the words of various
prayers and should avoid all baser things. Particularly should he beware
of failing in this, for the worst possible thing is to end the life in this
world forgetful of the rights of God. He should not harken to the words
of one who deceives him in this matter. For such a man may indeed
approach him.

It is desireable for a dying man to beg his relatives to be patient with

164

CYRIL ELGOOD

him in his sickness and to bear their distress with patience. He should
strive to recommend them to desist from weeping over him. And he
should remind them of the veritable saying of the Prophet who once
said: The dead receive punishment as much as is the weeping of
the relatives over them. So the sick man will say: O my dear friends,
please refrain from doing what will bring punishment upon me. And
they for their part should grant his request. He should also recommend
them to avoid raising their voices when reading the Quran and when
performing other of the funeral ceremonies.

When the sick man is drawing his last breath, he should repeat over
and over again: There is no God but God. And he should say to the
by-standers: If I become neglectful of this, pray recall me to it. Verily
the Prophet said: Whosoever makes his last words: There is no God but
God, such a person will surely enter Heaven. This tradition is reported
by Abu Dawud.

The Prophet also said: Teach your dying people to say: There is no
God but God. This is reported by Muslim.

If a dying man fails to say these words, let one of those present teach
him very gently in fear lest he become impatient and abandon it. And
if he say it but once, do not force it upon him again unless different
words are to be used. An incorrect statement should not be contradicted
lest perhaps the dying man die while he is being corrected.

When the eyes of the dying man close, say: By the Name of God and
by the Religion of the Prophet, speak nought but good words, for the
angels will confirm all that is said. Tradition relates that al-Ansari used
Quran 2 to recite the Chapter of the Cow in the presence of a dying man. Another

Quran 36 tradition says that the Chapter Yasin used to be recited over the dying.

This was related by Abu Dawud.

Something made of iron should be placed upon the abdomen of the
dying man. When c Umr bin Khattab was at his last moment he said
Folio 163 to his son: Place my cheek upon the ground. Then he wept until the

mud stuck to his eyes from the great quantity of his tears. And all this
time he was saying: Woe to c Umr and woe to his mother if God will
not overlook his sins. In another version of this story ( Umr wept and
made all around him weep.

And this is what he said when he died: All possessions belonging to
me upon whom the sun will not rise again, all these would I give to avoid
the fear of this rising. And he said to his sons: When you put me into
my grave, then place my cheek upon the earth in such a manner that
there may be nothing between my cheek and the earth. And he said to
Hafsa, his daughter: Swear by your inheritance from me that you will
make no mourning over me. But as for your eyes over them there is no
mastery. For verily no man is mourned for virtues that he never possessed
without incurring the hate of the angels.

After he died the holy man was seen in a dream. He was asked: What
has happened to you ? To which he replied: All is well. My bier was
nigh to descending into Hell had I not found my Lord merciful and
forgiving.

Said ‘Umr bin ‘Abd-ul-'Aziz on his death bed: I do not like the pangs
of death to be eased, for they are the last chance for a Moslem to gain a

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 1 65

reward. He was seen in a dream and was asked what deeds he found
most excellent. He replied: Petitions for forgiveness.

Said Bin Mu‘az when death drew near: Welcome, O Death, invisible
visitor. My friend, you have come at my moment of need. O God, how
I used to fear You. But now I ask for mercy.

A well known person said during the illness from which he died: When
I die, give my garments away. For naked I came into the World and
naked I wish to leave it.

Said Abu Bakr: I was with al-Junayd when he died. He read through
the whole Quran and then started again from the Chapter of the Cow.

Quran 2 He had got as far as verse 70 when he died. May God Almighty have

mercy upon him.

Part Three

Section XXIII

EMBRYOLOGY & ANATOMY

Folio 164 One of the Brethren asked me to tell him something about anatomy

and how food reaches the various organs. So I answered his question
placing my hope on God. I said: Said Almighty God: Certainly We
created Man from an extract of clay. Then We made him a small life
Quran 23.12 germ in a firm resting place. Then we made the life a clot: then We made
the clot a lump of flesh: then We made the lump of flesh bones: then
We clothed the bones with flesh: then We caused it to grow into another
creation. So blessed be God, the best of Creators.

Note: The saying of God * Certainly We created Man ’ means the
creation of the Sons of Adam. The word ‘ man ’ means the whole of
the species, being both singular and plural, all that derive from the extract
of clay.

Said Ibn ‘Abbas: The ‘ extract of clay * means the very essence.
Mohamed said: It means the semen of the Sons of Adam. ‘Akrama claimed
that it means the water which flows from the loins.

As for the phrase ‘ the small life germ ’ the Arabs call the life germ
the extract and the parent the extractor or the flow, because both the
extract and the life germ flow from clay, that is, from the clay of Adam.
And the extract is generated from clay and Adam was created from it.

It is said that the meaning of the word ‘ mankind ’ is Adam and His
saying ‘ extract ’ or ‘ flow ’ implies earth of all kinds. Al-Kalabi adds
that the life germ flowed from clay and that the clay was Adam.

So then, we placed the life germ, that is to say Man, in a firm resting
place, strongly guarded. This is the uterus which is concealed and is a
fixed resting place for the life germ until its arrival at its term of life.

Next We made the life germ into a clot. It is said that between the two
creations are forty days. Bin Mas'ud relates: The Prophet — and he is
a most trustworthy knower — has related to us that it was decided for
all creation to take forty days in the womb of the mother. So the clot
was like that.

CYRIL ELGOOD

Folio 165

Folio 166

Quran 23.14

l66

Next came the piece of flesh in the same way. Then God sent an angel
to blow a soul into it. And He gave orders for his fate to be written in
four words- for hindrance or for help, for misery or for happiness. This
is the tradition reported by al-Bukhari and by Muslim.

Physicians are agreed that the foetus is created in the uterus and that
it rests there for about forty days. Here are differentiated the male and
the femal organs according to the heat of the temperaments and the
faculties.

Next comes the clot of blood in a similar manner and this clot is a
piece of congealed blood.

Next comes the lump of flesh in a similar manner or call it a small
piece of tissue. This constitutes the third period of forty days.

Then it begins to move, as said the Prophet: We breathed into it a soul.
All wise men are agreed that no soul is breathed in until after the fourth
month.

Know then that the semen is at first cheesy, like scum on water. Then
it becomes bloody and finally fleshy. Next it receives form. Then it begins
to move.

The shortest possible period of pregnancy for a child to survive is
182 days. Full term pregnancy lasts 280 days.

Ibn ‘Abbas reports the tradition that the fluid of the male is white &
thick and that the fluid of the female is thin and yellow. Whichever of
the two is the higher or the lighter, from this one comes the resemblance
in the child.

Muslim reports that tradition that from the fluid of the male are created
the essential organs and the bones and that from the fluid of the female
is created the flesh.

Anas reports the tradition that ‘Abd-Ullah bin Salam once asked the
Prophet how it is that a child resembles his father or his mother. And the
Prophet replied: If the fluid of the male exceed that of the female, then
the child will resemble the man, but if the fluid of the female exceed that
of the male, then the child will resemble her.

Al-Bukhari reports that male semen is hot and strong and is therefore
thick and white, whereas female semen is thinner and weaker and is
therefore yellow. The resemblance of the child to one parent or the other
depends upon the excess of the seminal effusion, upon the greater quantity
of the semen, and upon the more voracious sexual appetite.

Said Hippocrates: Semen flows from all the organs, from the healthy
man healthy semen, from the diseased diseased. Said the Prophet:
Beneath every single hair lies a possibility of ceremonial impurity. His
saying ‘ beneath every hair lies impurity ’ indicates the same fact, that
is that the semen flows from every organ.

Next come the words of Almighty God: Then We caused it to grow
into another creation. Said Ibn ‘Abbas, al-Majahid, ‘Akrama, al-Sha‘bi,
al-Zahak and Abu ‘Aliyeh: This means the inspiration of the soul into it.

Said al-Qatada: The blossoming of Man is the hair. Al-Majahid added:
It is the maturity of youth. And al-Hassan further added: Be it male
or female.

Al-‘Awfi quoting Ibn ‘Abbas relates the traditional saying: The growth
of pubic hair marks the change of his state after birth. He has waited

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167

from the time of coitus until birth, till the time of sitting up, till the time
of standing up, till walking, till weaning, until the time of eating and
drinking, until growing to puberty, until the time of his supremacy in
society and until the time of all that goes with that. All this is described
in the various commentaries.

So may God be praised, may He be glorified and thanked for all that
He was and still is, the best of Creators, of Designers, and of Predes-
tinators.

Now Creation in the language of design means Man. God the Creator
is the Designer. Said al-Mujahid: So they were designed and God it was
Who designed them.

Said ‘Ayesha: The Prophet ‘Ali once said: All mankind of the Children
of Adam has been created from 360 joints. Whoever says: Great is God;
or: May happiness be found in God ; or: Glory be to God ; or: I ask pardon
of God; or he who removes a stone from the road or a thorn or a bone;
or he who has given orders to do what is good and has forbidden what
is bad; he who has done any of these things up to the number of the
Folio 167 three hundred and sixty joints, such a man has removed himself on that

day from the fire of Hell and has saved his soul. Muslim reports this
tradition.

Among the traditions of the acts of the Prophet is that he used to give
alms, one for every joint. It is also among the traditions about his actions
that he used to give alms every day, one for every bone.

Said the Prophet: If in the clot of blood the lump of flesh is at peace,
all the clot it at peace. And if it is corrupt, then all the clot is corrupt,
excepting one part, the heart.

Said Abu Harira: The Prophet said: The stomach is the tank of the
body and the vessels go down to water. If the stomach is healthy, the
vessels return from watering healthy. But if the stomach is diseased,
the vessels return diseased. Abu Nu'aim too relates this saying.

From Ibn ‘Umr comes the traditional saying that the Believer eats
with a single bowel, but the Unbeliever eats with seven bowels.

Al-Bukhari and Muslim relate the tradition that the stomach is a nervous
organ, hollow like a gourd with a long neck. The head at the upper end
is called the Oesophagus which presses down the food and the drink.
The lower end is called the Pylorus. By it the gastric contents are passed
down the bowel. The Pylorus is also known as al-Fu’ad. In the inside
of the stomach are found villi. These occur in the central part of the
stomach and are the seat of disease when this is the site where the first
digestion takes place. Here the food receives coction and from here it is
pressed down to the liver.

The stomach was created with nerves so that it can expand towards
the liver. It is also created with nerves so that it can expand when filled
with food and not burst.

Continuous with the stomach are the three intestines. The first is
called the Duodenum and its lengh is twelve fingers. The second is
called the Jejunum because it is usually empty. And the third long,
fibrous and thin intestine is called the Small Intestine.

After these three come the three large intestines. The first is called the
Caecum. It is broad and has no outlet on the other side. In it the faeces

Folio 168

CYRIL ELGOOD

1 68

begin to stink. The second is called the Colon. And the third is called
the Rectum, ending with the Anus. These are the six bowels which
together with the stomach make seven, as enumerated by the Prophet.

Said Avicenna: Verily because of His care for mankind Almighty God
created the bowel manifold and luxuriant that the passage of food down
from the stomach might be somewhat delayed.

Now the stomach is the root of all disease. Said the Prophet: The
stomach is the house of disease. And again he said: If the stomach is
sick, the vessels return sick. This remark I have already quoted.

Be it known that God has composed the bodies of all animals out of
many organs. He has set the bones to support the body. He did not
place merely one bone in the body, but set there many bones on account
of the need for various movements. For did the body have but one bone,
it would be incapable of a variety of movement.

All bones are covered by a substance called Periosteum.

The Glorious and Almighty One created at one end of every bone a
secondary prominence and at the other end a facet which should receive
the prominence of the next bone. Thus was the shape of His creation
perfected and movement made easy.

Folio 169 The Glorious and Almighty One next set the Brain in place as the

source of sensation and movement. From it grow the nerves which pass
to every organ, being nerves of sensation and nerves of movement.
From among these nerves He sent one special kind to the Eyes. This is
called the Optic Nerve and through it comes vision. Another specialised
nerve He sent to the Ears and through this comes hearing. Another
specialised one He sent to the Nostrils and though it comes the power
of smell. And yet another specialised nerve He sent to the Tongue and
through it comes taste.

The Glorious and Almighty brought about movement of the limbs
by organs known as Muscles. He further increased the adherence of the
muscles to the bones by organs called Tendons.

Now, since the lower parts of the body are far from the brain, the
Creator set in the hinder part of the bone of the skull an orifice through
which passes the Spinal Cord. This is strectched out within the vertebrae
of the back and gives to the lower end of the body sensation and movement.
The Glorious and Almighty One has especially distinguished the brain
by the provision of the bone of the skull and the cord by the vertebrae
of the back in the same way that He distinguished the heart and the
liver by the provision of the bone of the breast. For all these organs are
noble organs. So He fortified them with bones so that they might be
far from receiving any damage.

Within the brain the Glorious and Almighty One set three innermost
cavities. The first and foremost one is concerned with the imagination,
the second and middle one with reflection, and the third and hindermost
with recollection.

In a similar manner God the Glorious and Almighty set the heart as
the mine of life and the source from which arises the Innate Heat. And
just as there come forth from the brain nerves to carry to the organs
sensation and movement, so come forth from the heart the glistening
white arteries to carry to the organs the matter of Life. And since the

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 1 69

heart is the kindler of the Innate Heat and of warmth in general, as
soon as it takes rest, all heat is extinguished.

God the Glorious and Praiseworthy has set as a means of breathing
the mouth and the nostrils. Inside the mouth there are two channels,
one for the entry of air into the lungs and the other for the entry of food
and drink into the oesophagus and stomach. God has set the lungs as a
ventilator to fan the heart lest the Heat become extinguished.

As for the mouth it is divisible into two parts. One part is single and
is concerned with smelling. The other part is so arranged that air within
it passes to the heart, even though the mouth is shut by a lid, as at the
Folio 170 time of sleep and when eating and drinking. Were the mouth not so

arranged, the tongue would cause a throttling during sleep and the
mouth would have to be kept always open and during the act of eating
and drinking the road for air would be blocked. In consequence there
would be a suffocation from a falling into the air passage of any bit of
food or drink.

Just as God set the brain and the heart as the sources of sensation,
movement, and life for the rest of the body, so He placed the Liver as
the source of nourishment for all the other organs by means of the non-
pulsating vessels.

When a person takes food, first the lips taste it; then the canine teeth
break it up; then the molars crush it; and then the tongue turns it all
about. After all this it is pressed down to the stomach. Were it to rest
in the stomach, it would collect there and ultimately block the pyloric
exit below with a solid obstruction. So here coction takes place while it
tarries. When coction is taking place, there is need of water. And in
such circumstancs a man becomes thirsty. So possibly the stomach will
feel hot from its own subjugation and from the moisture within. Should
coction be completed there by means of the water, there will then remain
what resembles a thin gruel.

Between the liver and the stomach there are vessels by which food
is conveyed from the stomach to the liver. This is the meaning of the
saying of the Prophet: The stomach is the tank of the body and the
vessels go down to water at it. The liver sucks up the greater part of the
fluid food by means of these vessels. Then a second coction takes place
until the food is converted into blood. As soon as it has become blood,
it is sent to all the organs in sufficient quantity and as required for their
well-being.

Folio 171 Whatever food is left in the stomach is expelled into the intestine,

being the choicest. This remainder is expelled below so that the liver
may send to the heart the residue of the food to refine it and to the lungs
to be made subtle and to the brain to make it damp and to the bones to
make them thick and dry. Thus finally there remain in it only the waste
products. Of these a due portion is expelled to the Gall Bladder. There
it becomes what is known as Yellow Bile. And a due portion is sent
to the Spleen which there becomes known as Black Bile. And a proper
portion is expelled from the gall bladder to the intestines and this helps
in the excretion of the faeces. One part is excreted from the spleen to
the mouth of the stomach and increases the desire for food.

The blood extracts from the water a proper proportion to make it

CYRIL ELGOOD

Quran 69.46

Quran 50.16
Folio 172

170

subtle and to make it pass through the narrow paths. Once again the
water returns, passing back to the liver. Once again it is expelled by the
liver, this time to the kidneys and urinary bladder. There it becomes
urine. A little of this is extracted from the blood to nourish the kidneys
and bladder.

The proof that the water reaches the extremities of the organs and then
comes back, is afforded by the return of dyed water. For -the urine of
women is of a reddish hue following their use of henna, just as though
they had dyed the urine itself with henna.

Two large vessels arise from the liver. One is from the concave surface
and is called the Portal Vein. This passes to the stomach and picks up
the water from within it which has been produced from the food, as we
have already described. The second large vessel arises from the convex
surface and is called the Caval Vein and runs all over the body. A branch
of it runs to the back-bone and is called al-Watayn or The Suspender
of the Heart because it is the attachment of the heart. It waters all the
organs in man. It is also called al-Niyat. Of this vein said Ibn ‘Abbas:
If it is cut, the owner dies. And this is the meaning of the saying of
Almighty God: Then we would certainly have cut off his aorta, meaning
thereby the vessel which is called al-Watayn.

A branch runs out from it to the throat, called Al-Warfd or The Vein.
And of this Almighty God said: We are nearer to him than his life vein.
It is also known as the Jugular Vein. It is the vein which is cut when
sacrificing an animal. A branch passes from it to the right chamber of
the heart. This is known as al-Abhar or Superior Vena Cava. It is also
called the Vessel whose beginning is in the head. But the first title is
the more accurate.

About this vessel the Prophet said during the disease from which he
died: Now is my aorta cut as well as from the eating of what I eat at
Khaybar. Said al-Asmah: Al-Abhar is the vessel within the back which
passes to the heart. If this is cut, life becomes impossible. As for his
remark about the eating, this means the eating of a shoulder of a sheep
which had been poisoned by Zaynab bint al-Harath, the sister of Marhab,
the cursed Jewess. And this poison used to affect him every year, just as
it did at that time.

The remainder of the al-Warfd passes to the head and is called al-Nama
or The Melody. And from it comes the oath: May God cut his al-Nama,
that is, his gamut or life.

Then there passes a branch dispersed to the hands which terminates
there. One branch of this is called the Cephalic Vein and is used for
venesection in cases of disease of the head. Another branch is named
the Basilic Vein. And from these two runs a united branch, known as
the Median Vein. This is the vein which the Prophet seared for Sa‘d
bin Mu’az when wounded on the fore-arm. Another branch is called
the Radial Vein. And a branch of this is known as al-Kitff and another
as the Asaylam. These veins are destined for the hands.

Another branch runs to the thigh and is called the Sciatic Vein. It
has already been described in the description of the disease called Sciatica.
It is also used for venesection when a woman has no menstrual loss.
It sets up a flow again. The rest of this vein passes to the legs and there

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 171

it is known as the Saphenous Vein. It is used for venesection in diseases
of the feet.

The cutting of any of these veins does not put an end to any life except
their own. Indeed, if a man cut his hand off or his foot off, he can still
go on living. But even these he cannot cut off and live unless the wound
Folio 173 be seared. And that is why the Prophet seared the Median Vein in the

case of Sa‘d.

Know then that the waste products of digestion of the stomach are
the faeces and the waste products of digestion of the liver are the urine
and black and yellow bile. The waste products of digestion of other
organs are sweat and dirt. Every organ has its own waste products. Thus,
the waste products from digestion occurring in the brain are mucus and
saliva and those of the eyes are sordes. During night time the salt in this
sometimes becomes infected. The waste products of the digestion which
occurs in the heart and in the bladder are the growth of hair. Religous
Law orders these hairs to be plucked in the case of the arm-pits and
to be shaved in the case of the pubes. The waste products of digestion
which occurs in the ears is ear-wax. Sometimes by night worms are bred
in this wax.

And all praise be to the Merciful One, the Beneficent One, God, the
divine Creator and Artist.

As a solitary individual could not reproduce himself, the Divine Majesty
has created organs of generation to perpetuate the species. These organs
are the penis and testes in a man and the womb and breasts in a woman.
Within the womb God has made two large recesses placed on the right
and on the left. In the right recess the male is generally formed and
the female in the left. When twins are generated, male and female, then
both recesses are occupied.

When semen falls into the womb, the womb clasps it tight. This is
because it has an appetite for seminal fluid. The Prophet whose word
cannot be doubted, declared that in the womb is to be found an angel
who cries: O, Lord, grant but one drop of semen. So when the semen
comes to a stop within the womb, the womb clasps it tight to itself.
And from that time on the female has no desire for copulation. This is
a sign of pregnancy, that is, the failure of a woman to desire sexual inter-
course. This sign is found in all animals.

According to physicians the womb is a greedy animal. When the seminal
fluid of a man mixes with the spermatic liquid of a woman, the two
fluids intermingle and then receive coction. This results in the formation
Folio 174 of bubbles, caused by the heat of the coction, just as bubbles are produced

in thick matter when heated over a fire. These bubbles coalesce so as
to form one single bubble which presents a fairly large cavity. It is inside
this cavity that the Vital Spirit will collect with the permission of God.

The semen thus swollen next acquires a solidity. This period is known
as the Period of the Clot or Al-'Alaqa. It is at this stage that the guardian
angel of the womb cries: Lord, a Man; or: Lord, a Woman.

The next stage in the developement of the Clot is the formation of
blood vessels which serve for nutrition. This period is called the Period
of the Lump of Flesh or Al-Mazagha.

After this, God, the Creator of all Beings, God whose Name is holy,

172

CYRIL ELGOOD

Quran 39.6

Folio 175

God of majesty infinite and sovereignty absolute, breathes into it a Soul.
Then the angel of the womb is ordered to write what is destined for
this individual, the term of his existence, the work which will fill his
days, his fortune good or bad, as is told in the Traditions.

Next three membranes are formed which surround the child. One of
these is called al-Mashfma and it joins itself to the navel of the foetus
to bring it its nourishment. For it is through the navel that the foetus
receives what is to nourish it while it lies within the belly of its mother.

The second membrane receives the urine of the child. The third
membrane receives all the exhalations of the child which are analogous
to the sweat and dirt of the skin in a fully formed individual.

All these facts are indicated and signified in the words of God Himself
when He said: He creates you in the wombs of your mothers — a creation
after a creation — in triple darkness.

By ‘ creation after creation ’ in meant the Life Germ, the Clot, and
the Lump of Flesh: and by the 4 triple darkness ’ is meant the three
membranes.

So when the time is accomplished which God has fixed for gestation,
the three membranes are destroyed and broken. Then comes to the
woman suffering and birth pangs together with a flow of blood. This
blood is known as the Blood of Parturition.

You must know that the child sits in the maternal abdomen with face
turned towards the back of the mother. When he wishes to come forth,
he somersaults the top of his body to the lower end. Did he not do this,
the child would cling to the abdomen of his mother with both hands
and both he and his mother would die. It is because of the great pain
that a woman endures that a mother who dies in childbirth is ranked
by theologians among the martyrs, as the words of the Prophet teach us.

So the child comes forth to this World, the place of trouble and worry,
of faults and sin. A new being, the child has nothing to dispose of,
nothing harmful, neither life nor death nor resurrection. A beloved being
his father and mother smile upon him and prepare for him the best they
have, the choicest and most refined of foods. To him are addressed the
affection of strangers and of the family. Whoever sees him gives him
welcome, so weak is he.

Later he completes the space of his career on this earth of misadventure
and misfortune, where he has been surrounded by pleasure or plunged
in misery. The end to which he is going is either Paradise or the Fire
of Hell. May God prevent us by His generous pity and His kindness
from this latter and grant that we be saved from such misfortune. May
He grant us grace to finish well the actions of our life.

Reflect then, O Man, on your beginning and on your end and on the
consequences of your life. And I beg the Majesty who gives pardon,
to grant you all the grace to save yourselves and to be received into His
kindness.

Those experienced in the matter say that when a woman is pregnant
with a male child, her complexion improves and her gait is lighter. The
foetal movement of a male child is felt more on the right side and when
the foetus is a male the right breast of the mother grows bigger than
the left. The pulse at the wrist is also fuller. When walking the woman

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 1 73

puts the right foot forward first. All these signs are reversed if the foetus
is a female.

As for the saying of the Prophet ‘ Verily He created all mankind with
three hundred and sixty articulations ’, all these I will enumerate for you,
if God will.

Masters of Anatomy state that there are n bones in the cranium, in
the sockets of the eyes 6, in the cheeks 2, and in the nose 4. To these
are to be added the central incisors, the lateral incisors, the canines,
Folio 176 and the grinders which form the upper jaw. The same number is found

in the lower jaw, which is also called the chin. So the bones of the teeth
number 16 above and 16 below, being named as above mentioned, central
and lateral incisors, canines, and molars.

The bones of the back articulate with the bones of the head posteriorly.
These vertebrae number 24, sometime I more, some time I less. They
articulate blow the sacrum. This is the bone about which the Prophet
said: There will remain to the children of Adam only the bone of the
tail. The sacrum articulates below with the coccyx. These form together
6 bones and are, as it were, the foundation for the rest of the body.

Laterally there articulate with the sacrum the two iliac bones. In these
is found the acetabulum into which enters the head of the femur. This
completes the description of the bones which form the back.

The bones of the front are made up of the two clavicles and the two
scapulae, excluding the bones of the neck. After them come the two
big bones, called the humerus, followed by the 4 bones of the fore-arm.

The bones of the chest are 7 and are called the Bones of Girth of the
Sternum. The ribs on either side are 12, being convex and joined to
the vertebrae behind. This is a description of the bones of the front.

As for the hands, there are the bones of the two wrists, being 16 in
number. All the bones of the carpus which form the hand, are popularly
known as the Wrist. They are called the cuneiform bones, while the
bone which lies next to the thumb is called the trapezium and that which
lies opposite the little finger the Unciform. The bones of the metacarpus
Folio 177 are 8. The bones forming the fingers are 30, for each finger 3 bones.

They are known as phallanges. We have already quoted what the Prophet
said about these.

As for the bones of the legs, there are the 2 ischial bones, 1 bone in
each thigh, 2 bones in the knees, and 4 bones below the knees. Below
this each foot has an astragalus, an os calcis, and a navicular bone. These
form the ankle and by them movement of the foot is brought about.
In all there are 8 bones. The bones of the foot number 20 and the bones
of the toes 28, for each toe 3 bones excepting the big toe which has only 2.

This is the list of the bones of the body as enumerated by the Prophet.

Since the bones are not fixed in their positions, the Creator has pro-
duced for them at their extremities solid bodies to strengthen and bind
them, these bodies being known as tendons and ligaments. He made
the muscles to move the bones whose number in the body is 529. The
muscles He created of flesh and nerve.

Next He united all these with arteries, veins and nerves that they
might receive life and sensation, movement and food, as has already
been told. Next He covered them all with flesh and fat and adipose

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CYRIL ELGOOD

tissue. The Creator set the flesh to prevent any breach of the organs
and to keep them safe from cold and from being split asunder and detached
one from another. Such flesh is called fascia. An example is found in
the thighs and in the tongue. The fat is the source of heat. Indeed it is
the very matter of heat, for fire does not burn without oil. And finally,
Folio 178 the adipose tissue is the tissue which thickens the organs of nutrition

like a coat. It aids digestion and is plentiful in the peritoneum and the
bowel.

When the construction was completed, the Almighty covered the
whole thing with skin. Some skin He made thin, like the skin of the
face which has need of beauty and comeliness. Other skin He made
thick, like the skin of the feet where there is need for walking or coming
into contact with hard bodies.

Then the Almighty set in the skin organs of sensation and touch and
brought to it the mouths of the blood vessels. And in every spot of the
skin there is sensation and from every spot if pricked blood will flow.
This is also a means of nourishment.

Then He made to grow in the skin the differing growths of hair and
nails. Of the hair some He created for its beauty or as a veil, such as the
hair of the head or the eye-brows or the eye-lashes. For the hair of the
head and the eye-brows are for beauty; the hair of the eye-lashes is
to protect the eyes against anything getting into them as well as for
their beauty. For whenever we picture a bald man with shaved eyebrows
and eye-lashes, verily that man is most unpleasant to look upon. Indeed the
ugliest feature of a shaven monk is the ugliness of his face and his unpleas-
ant appearance.

Among the acts of wisdom and mercy of the All-praised and Almighty
is the fact that He made the hair of the eyebrows and the eyelashes to
remain without growth. For were they to grow long, they would cover
the eyes and damage the sight. And were they to grow upwards or down-
wards they would hamper sight. And indeed among diseases of the eyes
is one found called Trichiasis or Overgrowth of the Lashes. This does
much damage to the sight and is cured by plucking out the hair.

Another hair which is an embellishment is the hair of the chin which
Folio 179 helps a man to be respected and dignified. Have you never noticed how

ugly are the faces of eunuchs when they grow to manhood ?

Among the hair which is not an embellishment and is not of any use
is the hair of the pubes and the hair of the arm-pits. Hence the Great
Teacher ordered their depilation and bade us shave it off. For shaving
of the pubic hair strengthens the desire for sexual intercourse, just as
shaving of the back of the head thickens the neck. All mercy and favour
is to be found in His creation.

At the tips of the fingers He created nails to strengthen their movements
and to prevent the tips of the fingers from being worn away. These were
made to continue to grow at all times. For were they stationary and did
they not continue to grow, they would be worn away with so much
work.

The Sunna requires the nails to be pared. These requirements about
paring the nails and burying the parings are only traditional sayings,
comparable to the saying of the Prophet: Keep the nails short, shave

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

1 75

Folio 180

Quran 39*17

Quran 35.1

the pubic hair, and depilate the armpits on Thursdays, and on Fridays
use scent, clean clothes, and the hot bath. But as for the use of the hot
bath on Fridays, sometimes this is of obligation and sometimes only
desireable.

Tradition says that he who cuts his nails will not suffer from ophthalmia
on the opposite side.

Tradition also says that it is commanded to bury the hair and the
nails lest the Sons of Adam use them for magic purposes. According
to one tradition which has a strong chain of authorities Mujahid said:
The burial of nail parings is desireable. The same chain of authorities
adds: Desirable too is the burial of blood and of hair. Tradition says
that Abu Dawud once said: The Prophet was cupped and then said to
the man: Bury the blood lest it be licked by a dog which suffers from
rabies.

So may the blessing of God and His peace be upon this Illiterate Prophet
who so marvellously produced the knowledge that makes us see and
which dazzles the wise and who has given us understanding of His ever-
lasting gifts which continue throughout day and night. Herein has the
All -praiseworthy and the Almighty God made Man glad by His excellency
and by His kindness. May His servants serve Him with an earnest vision.
So praise be to God, Lord of the Two Worlds.

Part III

Section XXIV

ON LISTENING TO SINGING

Listening to singing is the scent of souls, the calmer of hearts, the
food of the spirit. It is among the most important kinds of psychological
medicine. It is a cause of pleasure, even to some animals. And pleasure
in moderation purifies the Innate Heat, strengthens the functioning of
the Faculties, slows down senile decay by driving out its diseases, renders
the complexion clearer, and refreshes the whole body. Per contra excess
of pleasure makes the illnesses of the body to increase.

Abu Nu'aim in his Tibb-ul-Nabbi says of the Prophet that he said that
the advantages of listening to singing are increased by the understanding
of it, that is, by its audibility. God Himself said: Give good news to my
servants, those who listen to the Word and then follow the best of it.

Abu Harira said: Exalted are those who Almighty God has permitted
among His permissions to His children to chant the Quran or to raise
their voices in sweet songs or even to listen to them and to chant or recite
in sweet cadences.

The Prophet said: They enriched the Quran with their voices. And,
again, there occurs this saying of God: He increases in Creation what He
pleases. This means through a beautiful voice.

Dhu-ul-Nun was once asked: What is meant by singing ? And he
replied: It is the transporter of Truth and the Driver of hearts towards
Truth. When asked about a beautiful voice he replied: It is words and
accents to which Almighty God has added a perfume.

176

CYRIL ELGOOD

It is related of ( Umr bin al-Khattab that he was chanting one day
in his house. Some one remarked on it. To which he replied: Even if
I am alone, I chant as is the custom of men. And he added: Song is the
Provision of Travellers.

‘Abd-Ullah bin Jaffar was passionately fond of chanting.

One day it was asked of al-Zuhri if he did not despise songs. To which
he replied: Yes, when they are not pleasing, such for instance as are
too dull or too frivolous.

Folio 18 1 The Prophet David was very sweet voiced when he used to bewail

his sins. Whenever he recited the Psalms there used to collect around
him jinns and men, birds and wild animals. Said the Prophet to Abu
Musa: Verily I call this song one of the songs of the posterity of David.

Plato said that there are only four pleasures in this World — eating,
drinking, sexual intercourse, and listening to singing. And indeed you
will see that people of every laborious craft, such as dyers and porters,
make up for themselves tunes and by this means dissipate their weariness.
You will also see crying children quietened by a lullaby. Camels can be
made to traverse long distances by songs.

The story is told that a certain Arab possessed a very sweet voiced
slave. He used to sing whenever a camel was very heavily loaded. Once
such a camel accomplished a journey of three days in a single day. On
arrival she lay down and died. If a camel was so affected by a sweet
voice, even though it did not understand the meaning of the words,
what then will people of taste and culture not think when they hear
an exquisite voice and understand the beautiful words as well.

You have seen the nightingales and the birds called shuhrur, how
they seek for them selves places where they can listen to their singing.

On the legality of listening to songs, some doctors of the Law permit
this pleasure, others do not. According to Ibn Qataba songs and harmo-
nious chants clarify the brain, sweeten the character, animate the soul,
clear the blood, improve and help persons with thick diseases, and devel-
ope all the natural qualities of a man. Listening to singing is recom-
mended in the treatment of some diseases, especially those due to spleen.

Part Three
Section XXV

ON SMALL POX, MEASLES AND THE CHICKEN POX.

Know then that Small Pox is of several varieties. Among these are the
Folio 182 White, the Yellow, the Violet, the Green, and the Black Pox. The least

dangerous is the White Small Pox. For when the pus is white and the
sediment in the urine is white, there is proof of the strength of the consti-
tution. And this is is not so in the case of the Red, Yellow, Violet and
Green types. The Black Small Pox is the most dangerous.

Few spots mean less danger, as also do large spots, for these are signs
of submission of the materies morbi and of the strength of the consti-
tution. An exception is when the spots are doubled, that is when one
variety is imposed upon another. A large number of spots or spots of

Folio 183

that is 1872/73
A.D.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 1 77

small size are bad signs. The safest type is when the eruption begins
on the third day or near to that day. A slow eruption of the rash is a
bad sign, for it is evidence of strength in the materies morbi and of
weakness in the constitution.

When the rash appears once and then boils up a second time, it is to
be feared. When there is a free flow of coction, there is safety, and vice
versa. When the pustules appear elongated, the danger is great; when
they appear round the danger is less. The rash that appears on the chest
and abdomen is the most dangerous, for it shows a lack of submission
of the materies morbi to be expelled to the extremities. The type that
appears on the extremities is better than that which appears on the face
and head. The type accompanied by fever and distress is safer, and vice
versa. When the fever preceeds the rash, the danger is less than when
the rash preceeds the fever. When the respiration is good, there is safety;
when the respiration is difficult, there is danger. When there is dyspnoea
accompanied by thirst, then know that one of the fatal types of the Pox
is present. And when the urine is bloody or black, than the result is
always fatal.

As for the Measles, it arises, like Small Pox, from a bitter bile. The
materies morbi is blood.

As for Chicken Pox, it lies mid-way between Small Pox and Measles.

In the matter of treatment it is essential to set up a good flow and to
evacuate the disease from blood by phlebotomy and scarification. The
patient must drink syrup of grapes and pomegranites and eat peas and
spinach and a milk pudding with almonds and barley water mixed with
oil of almonds. Eye drops of water of coriander should be employed
into which black collyrium has been sprinkled. The soles of the feet
should be dyed with henna.

When the fever drops, the patient should eat soup made from young
chickens. And after twenty days he should go to the hot bath. And God
is all-knowing.

So the book is finished with the praise and help of God. And blessed
be he who relies upon Him.

The copying of this book was completed on Friday the 25th. day of
the month of Dhu-ul-Qa'da in the year 1289 after the flight of the Prophet
(upon whom be the choicest of prayers and the most perfect of greetings),
being written by the hand of the humble one who admits his incapacity
and innumerable sins and short comings and who requests forgiveness
from his exalted master Ibrahim al-Maliki bin l Ali the Shadhilite. May
God pardon him, his parents, all Moslems, and all those that pray for
the glory of Islam. And may God pour blessimgs upon our Lord Mohamed,
the illiterate prophet. And upon his Family and upon his Companisons
be greetings. And peace be upon him every time that the mindful remem-
bers and the careless forgets to remember.

Finis

NOTES ON SOME OF THE PROPER NAMES
MENTIONED IN THE TEXT

(in order of their appearance in the text)

‘Umr bin al-Khattab was the second orthodox Caliph, being elected to
succeed Abu Bakr in 634 A.D.. He ruled for ten years and was then
murdered by a Persian slave named Firuz while at prayer in the Great
Mosque.

(Ff. 4, 12, 17, 98, 104, 1 12, 1 15, 137, 144, & 180)

‘Uthman bin ‘Affan succeeded ‘Umr as Third Caliph. He belonged to the
distinguished Meccan family of the Umayyads, who finally captured
the caliphate for themselves. He was a pious, well-meaning old man,
one of the Prophet’s first disciples. The arrogance and greed of his
family soon caused his downfall and he was murdered in his own house in
656 A.D.

(Ff. 17, 68, 157, & 180)

Jabir ibn ‘Abd-Ullah was a Companion of the Prophet. To him was
revealed the verse 21.95 of the Quran “ It is binding on a town which
we destroy that they shall not return ”. For the story runs that his
father after death was asked by Almighty God what he most desired.
To Him he replied that he wished above all to return to earth and
to fight again and die for Islam. The above verse was the reply.

(Ff. 19, 20, 14, 69, 73, 75, 78, 81, 91, 104, 109, 125, 129, 134, 135,

I 37> H5> !52, 158)

Ahmad ibn Hanbal was the founder of one of the four orthodox Schools
of the Sunnis. He nearly lost his life in the time of the Caliph al-Ma’mun
(780-855 A.D.) for refusing to declare that the Quran was a direct
act of creation. He was the favourite pupol of al-Shafi‘i.

(Ff. 25, 26, 29, 107, 108, no, in, 1 12, 53, 1 18, 126, 104, 145, 150, 151,

152, 155)

Ibn ‘Abbas who is quoted a great many times is, I imagine, ‘Abd-Ullah
ibn ‘Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet and the founder of Quranic exegesis.
He was one of the committee appointed by ‘Uthman to decide upon the
Canon of the Quran and to supervise its committal to writing.

(Ff. 24, 33, 36, 37, 41, 44, 60, 17, 25, 28, 61, 72, 81, 83, 84, 86, 88, 92,
99. io 7> l: 3> 120 , 122, 123, 127, 132, 134, 135, 143, 146, 150, 159, 164,
165, 166, 171)

Abu Bakr, known as Al-Siddiq or The Pure One, was the first successor
to Mohamed who had left no son and had appointed no heir. Abu
Bakr was his father-in-law by virtue of the marriage of Mohamed to
'Ayesha, his daughter.

(Ff. 25, 54, 99, 108, 142, 163)

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 1 79

Abu ‘Ubayda bin al-Jarrah was a celebrated Companion of the Prophet
who led the Moslem army to the conquest of Syria and died of the
plague in 639 A.D.

(Ff. 49, 54, 56, 79, 89)

Al-Malik ibn Anas was the founder of the Maliki Sect of Sunni Moslems
and the author of the book called al-Muwatta> or The Level Path,
which is quoted several times in this book. He was born at Medina in
713 A.D. and died in 795. He was cruelly flogged by al-Mansur for
supposed disaffection towards the e Abbasid Caliphate. He is sometimes
referred to in this work as The Imam Ahmad.

(Ff. 50, 90, 109, 144, 147, 148, 19)

Mohamed bin Muslim bin Shihab al-Zuhri, who died in 742 A.D., is
the most renowned traditionalist of the Umayyad age. He disgraced
himself in the eyes of his more conscientious brethren by accepting
judicial office under tyrants.

(Ff. 61, 89, 180)

Tamfm Dari was a shaykh in Hebron, contemporary with the Prophet.
He is the subject of a well-known tradition.

One version of the tradition is that he, although a Christian, was
entrusted by a dying Moslem with his property which was to be made
over to the relatives of the dead man who lived in Medina. The property
was duly handed over with the exception of a silver cup which Tamfm
Darf kept without disclosing its existence.

• Another version of the tradition is that he gained possession of the
land as well. It is said that he came to the Prophet with a present of
some local grapes and in return asked the Prophet to authorise his title
to the land. The Prophet was astonished that he should be asked to
guarantee a title of a piece of land so far away and to him unknown.
However, inspired by f God he f did what he was asked, using the word
‘ anta» * or ‘ A'ta 1 * ULh or Lke! both words meaning ‘ to give \ Hence
this tradition became known as the Hadith-ul-Anta>.

After the 1914-18 War part of this land was sold to a Jew without
the consent of the Arab owner. At the end of the war the Arab laid claim
to the property and brought his case before the Court in Jerusalem.
Here he lost his case and appealed to the Privy Council in London.
The validity of his claim depended ultimately upon this tradition
which was recognised as genuine in London and the Jewish buyer
was compelled to restore the land.

(F. 61)

Perfume. In the text only two of the three things which the Prophet
loved, are mentioned. The third can be supplied from another tradition
which runs “ After women nothing was dearer to the Prophet of God
than horses

Another more spirtual love is mentioned in another tradition quoted
on folio 23. After “ women and scent ” is added “ and the sparkle
of the pupil of my eye is prayer
(F. 71)

The Precincts means the city of Mecca. During the time of Pilgrimage
the holy area or Precincts is enlarged to include other venerable spots.

i8o

CYRIL ELGOOD

According to tradition there are five reprobates — a mad dog, a
serpent, a kite, a rat, and a crow. The killing of these is lawful any-
where and at any time.

The ‘ state of ihram ’ means the state of a pilgrim to Mecca from the
time when he assumes the distinctive garb of a pilgrim until he leaves
it off. During this period there are a number of prohibitions which
including hunting and killing any animal. The Five Reprobates are
excepted.

As a matter of correct meaning the first two types of crow here
mentioned are the Black Crow and the Piebald Crow. The other two
are really rooks and not crows at all.

(F. 76)

Masih must, I think, be Masawayh or Messue, as rendered in the Latin
version of his works. He is famed as a pharmacist. His work began in
Jundi Shapur and from there he became apothecary to the Caliph
Harun-ul-Rashid. The first translation of his work into Latin was
made in 1462.

(F. 79)

Quails are referred to in the Quran in this verse: We made clouds to
give shade to you and we sent to you manna and quails. (Quran 2.57).
The manna and quails story occurs, of course, also in Exodus chapter 16.

The word ‘ manna ’ is pure arabic and is derived from the words
‘ man <alehi ’ aJU that is, ‘ he bestowed a pure favour upon him ’.
So when the Prophet calls truffles a manna of manna he means that
they are a pure favour bestowed upon mankind without labour on his
part.

Why al-Suyuti calls manna a sweet dew can be understood by
consulting Lane’s Arabic Lexicon. There the following note is given to
the word Taranjabin “ A kind of manna: the manna of the

thorny plants called by the Arabs the Haj and hence by European
botanists alhagi. According to Dr. Royle it is a sweetish juice which
exudes from the Alhagi Maurorum, concretes into small granular
masses, and is usually distinguished by the Persian name ‘ Mann ’:
also a kind of dew that falls mostly in Khorasan and Ma-wara-un-Nahr
and in our country mostly upon the haj: the best thereof is that which
is fresh or moist and sweet (according to Avicenna): the mann or
manna mentioned in the Quran. ” Other people claim that manna is
honey.

The word ‘ salwa ’ again has a special meaning and means not only
quails but also implies whatever renders one content in a case of privation.

So the whole phrase truffles, manna, and quails includes all the gifts
that God granted to the Children of Israil in the wilderness and still
grants to mankind without any exertion on his part.

(F. 82)

Zamzam is the name of a well which lies within the Precincts of Mecca.
When Ibn Jubayr visited it (see his Travels p. 84) the orifice of the
well lay beneath a marble dome. The depth was “ eleven statures of
a man ”. Beside this dome stood a second dome, called Al-Sharabiyya,
because here were set earthernware jugs to cool in the air which were

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

181

produced in the evening for the pilgrims to drink from. Ibn Jubayr
found that the water tasted like milk from the udder of a camel and
that it relieved weariness and sickness.

(F. 92)

Depilation is required by the Sunna. Tradition says that a married woman
should remove all hair from the arm-pits and the pubes once a week,
a widow should do so once a fortnight, and a virgin once a month.

In some parts of Arabia today it is customary for the women to meet
together for tea, conversation and depilation. For the depilatory the
hostess takes some sugar and puts it into the frying pan. When this
melts she adds half a lemon to every six ounces of sugar. This is then
stirred over the fire until it forms a homogeneous mass. Then, as
soon as it begins to dry up, it is poured on to a flat smooth wet stone
or piece of marble until it cools down. It is then worked upon by hand
until it becomes elastic. Finally it is applied for half a minute wherever
she desires and on removal will bring away all the hair.

(F. 96)

Allergy as a translation of a mediaeval medical term strikes an apparently
false note. But it is not so: it is a perfect equivalent. For the word
in the text here is ‘ ba-il-ja'l ’ which means ‘ enforced ’ or ‘ made to
do something ’ JjisJl). And what does the word allergy mean but 4 a
second work ’ ?

(F. 98)

Pumpkin is not quite correct as a translation of the Arabic word ‘ yaqtin ’
Strictly speaking the word means any plant which has no
stalk for its support, such as melons, marrows, or pumpkins. The word is
Quranic and is applied to the bush which grew up and sheltered Jonah.
(F. 99 )

Labid bin RabPa was a pre-Islamic poet who wrote of the desert life
of fighting and feasting. He was born in the latter half of the sixth
century and died in 661 A.D. On accepting Islam he abjured poetry,
saying: God has given me the Quran in exchange.

(F. 101)

Hobble and have reliance is a reference to the story that Mohamed was
once sitting in his tent when he saw a stray camel. He called to a passing
Bedouin and asked him whose animal it was. The man replied that it
was his. The Prophet asked him why he had not hobbled it to prevent
it straying. The Bedouin replied that he had no need to hobble his
animal for he relied upon God not to let it stray. To which the Prophet
said: Both hobble your camel and rely on God.

Trust in God and keep your powder dry, as was said much later.
(F. 108)

Dhimmi is a term applied to all Believers in a Book, that is Jews, Christians
and Zoroastrians, who live in an Islamic country.

(F. no)

Ka ( b is a person who appears three times in the text. Once he is described
as bin Sa ( d and once as bin ‘Ajra and once with no patronimic.

CYRIL ELGOOD

182

Among the Companions of the Prophet was a well-known Ka‘b bin
Malik, who distinguished himself by refusing to desert the Prophet when
bribed to do so. There was another Companion Ka'b bin Ashraf who
was murdered at Mecca. Whether the Ka‘b of the text is to be identified
with either of these I can not say.

(Ff. 1 12, 122, 146)

Sa‘d bin Mu‘az was a general in the army of Islam in its early days.
To him was deputed the sentence upon the Bani Quraiza which has
been seized upon by opponents of Islam as an example of cruelty on
the part of Mohamed. The fact is that the Bani Quraiza, living within
the city of Medina, had agreed to aid the enemy outside by attacking
the Moslems inside, acting thus as Fifth Columnists. On the defeat
of the beseiging forces Mohamed turned his attention to the foe within
the city. After twenty-five days of fighting they all surrendered, agreeing
to receive whatever punishment should be inflicted upon them. The
Prophet made the judge in the case Sa'd bin Mu'az. To the consternation
of all he ordered death for the fighting men and captivity for the rest.
About 300 men were put to death.

(Ff. 135, 163, 172)

Al-Jabr was at first a Christian slave who became one of the first converts
to Islam. In spite of persecution he remained faithful to his new religion.

The word ‘ jabr ’ means ‘ a bone-setter \ So from the anecdote here
it is reasonable to guess that al-Jabr was a title given to him by reason
of his special skill.

( F - I 37)

Bilal was, like the above, an Abyssinian slave, converted to Islam. He
was a great singer and it is said that his sweet voice used to send the
Prophet into raptures. He was the original muezzin. When the Prophet
for the first time instituted the Call to Prayer, he sent Bilal up to the
roof to summon the Faithful, which Bilal did in a loud and sonorous
voice.

When captured and tortured by the Unbelievers he refused to recant
and as he died his last words were: Ahad, ahad, that is, God is One.
(Ff. 142, 154, 157)

Contagion. This section on the Plague shows the views of the Prophet
about contagion and infection in general. Other traditional sayings are
even more dogmatic. Thus, al-Bukhari reports that he said: There is no
such thing as contagion or drawing omens from birds; there is only
misfortune and that is ever present in women, horses and houses.

The nearest that the Prophet came to admitting that disease can be
transmitted from one living thing to another is when he said: He who
has a sick camel, let him not pasture it with him who has a sound one.
Upon which saying Abu Salma commented: Never have we known
the Prophet to forget one of his sayings, except in this case. Again, of
transmission among humans the Prophet said: Flee from one with ele-
phantiasis as you would from a lion. And he himself was cautious
enough not to go bed with a woman who was suffering from ophthalmia.

His followers, however, drew more scientifically correct conclusions
from their observations. Abu Harira said: The Prophet said that there

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

i8 3

is no such thing as a contagious disease or cholera or a screech owl.
When a Bedouin said to him: O Prophet, how is it that my camels
which are healthy as gazelles in the sand dunes become infected with
the itch when they meet with an itch-infected camel ? To this question
the Prophet replied: And how did the first camel become infected ?

Al-Suyuti wriggles out of the difficulty by confusing immediate and
ultimate causation. He writes: Halimf says: Communicable or Conta-
gious diseases are six — small pox, measles, itch, foul breath, melan-
cholia, and pestilential maladies. And diseases engendered are also
six — leprosy, hectic fever, epilepsy, gout, elephantiasis, and phthisis.
Now this saying does not contradict anything of what the Prophet said.
For the transition from person to person meant here is occasioned
by the disease itself, whereas the effect is from God who is the cause
of the spread of the pestilence when there is intercourse with diseased
persons. In other words, the occurrence of the same disease in two
people is not the result of their contact but of the Will of God.

The Prophet’s views on this subject are to a large extent responsible
for the failure of the Arabian and Persian Schools of Medicine to
formulate any rules for the protection of society against epidemics. Hence
he is responsible for the appalling apathy with which the Middle East
treated their annual visits of plague and cholera. This was the official
view, though the individual did in fact consider that there was some
relation between contact and the spread of disease. For the Turkish
Government officials all along the Persian Gulf used to shut themselves
up in their houses on the outbreak of plague or cholera and all letters
coming from infected areas were fumigated before being touched.
In other words in practice Islamic quarantine measures did not differ
from those applied in Christian countries.

(Ff. 140-144)

Birth Control. This chapter is of extreme interest because it appears to
be a discussion of the methods of birth control practiced in the early
days of Islam.

There were three methods of keeping down the population. First
there was infanticide. This was practiced by the pagan Arabs and is
unconditionally condemned by God and the Prophet. “ Do not kill
your children for fear of poverty: We give them sustenance and your-
selves too: surely to kill them is a great wrong ”. So says Quran 17.31.

The next method was to have intercourse only with a lactating woman.
As lactation frequently continued until the child was two years old
this was to a limited extent an effective method. The Prophet half
condemns this practice, calling it a secret infanticide. He considered
that the child at the breast would suffer if conception did occur. For
the uterus would then receive the best of the maternal milk, leaving
the breasts starved. Modern views agree with the Prophet, but for
different reasons.

Finally it appears that coitus interruptus was practiced in those days
and to this the Prophet considered there could be no objection, provided
the woman agreed.

A fourth method, based on a false theory of physiology, was for
the woman to take drugs to stop her monthly flow. The argument

184

CYRIL ELGOOD

was: In pregnancy there are no menses, therefore if there are no menses
there will be no pregnancy. Obviously this method can find no place
in modern birth control methods. But what is interesting is to know
what drug was used to produce amenorrhoea.

(Ff. 144, 145)

The black scab on the slave girl’s face. There is an interesting confusion
here. According to Johnson in his Persian- Arabic Dictionary there are
two very similar words — al-sa'fat &bu~J) and al-saf'at The

former means “ a kind of ulcer or scurf growing on the heads of infants
Subhy translates it as Psoriasis and the Latin version of the Canon of
Avicenna as Achar. It may well be Impetigo or Sycosis.

The second word is rendered by Johnson as 4 4 being made furious,
possessed with the devil. The malignant eye. A change of colour.
Black with a mixture of red ”. In a manuscript, unless very carefully
written, the two words cannot easily be distinguished. To me it is
clear that in this tradition some commentators have read one word
and others the other.

( F - Hi)

Ibrahim al-Maliki the Shadhilite whose servant was the copyist of this
manuscript, is unknown to me. The Shadhilites were an Order of
Dervishes founded in the Western parts of the Islamic world by Shaykh
Abu ul-Hasan al-Shadhili. He died in 1258 A.D. The order flourished
in Egypt, another piece of evidence for the Egyptian authorship of
the work.

(F- 183)

INDEX OF MAIN SUBJECTS DEALT WITH IN THE TEXT

‘Ali, breaks his arm 137
Allergy, 98 & note p. 181
al- c Azala, the practice of 144, 145

Birth Control, note to folio 144 and
note page 183

Cauterisation, 133, 135, 136, 137
Charms, their uses 116, 145
Coitus,

interruptus 144, 145
regulations for 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
with a lactating woman allowed
144 , 145

Cupping, 24, 25, 26

Drinking standing-up allowed, 17
Doctor, whom to choose 109
Dropsy, its treatment 85, 133
Dystocia, its treatment 150

Epitome of Medicine, 12

Evil Eye, 146, 147, 148
Flies in a drink, 58

al-Ghayla, the practice of 144, 145
Gold as a drug, 59

Henna, its uses 22, 24, 54
Khaybar, battle of 90, 126, 172

Leprosy, 123, 124

Licking of fingers & plate, 10

Masturbation, 24
Mediastinitis, treatent of 117
Mohamed the Prophet,
assaulted 4
bewitched 150

bitten by a scorpion 94, 139
bled by abu Ka‘b 24
cauterised for scabies 135
cauterises for haemorrhage 137, 172
cupped 25, 179

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

cupped for a sprain 137
cures ophthalmia 155
knows Persian 153
poisoned at Khaybar 172
questioned by a Bedouin 7
struck by the Evil Eye 148
suffers from
fever 128

headache 13 1, 160
lumbago 115
old age 1 14
ulcer of the leg 41
terminal illness 161, 172
treated by Arabs and non -Arabs 107
treats insomnia 156
uses

a depilatory 96
henna 54, 13 1

al-Nushra, practice of 152

Oath, Hippocratic 13, 31
Onions, their use & abuse 40
Ophthalmia,

among the wives of the Prophet 1 1 2

185

contraindicates the eating of dates
1 12

cured by spittle 155

Paracentesis abdominalis, 133
Pleurisy, False & True 79, 133

Quails, their uses 64 & note 82

Rabies, 137

Rhubarb as a medicine, 59
Rivers, 91

Salt, uses of 94
Snuff as a medicine 123

Tarawih, the prayer so-called 155

Umr the Caliph, his last hours 163
also note p. 178

Venesection 24, 25, 26, 31
Visiting the sick 123, 124, 159, 160

Wine, its uses 51, 124, 125
Writing permitted to women 149

Zamzam, its virtues 92 & note p. 180

TIBB-ul-NABBI of

MAHMUD bin MOHAMED al-CHAGHHAYNI

This Pamphlet is called “ The Medicine of the Prophet ” and is founded
upon written testimonies.

Said the Prophet of God (peace be upon Him and upon his Family):

1. Almighty God did not create any illness without also creating the
remedy, excepting only Death. He said that he who takes care will have
a long life.

2. The origin of every disease is cold. So eat when you desire and refrain
when you desire.

3. The stomach is the house of every disease and abstinence the head
of every remedy. So make this your custom.

4. In the sight of God the best food is a food shared by many.

5. To eat the morning meal alone is to eat with Satan: to eat with one
other person is to eat with a tyrant: to eat with two other persons is to
eat with the prophets.

6. Make your food cool, for in hot food there is no blessing.

7. When you eat take off your shoes, for then indeed your feet have
more rest. This is an excellent precept.

8. To eat in the bazaar in public is to behave like a wine -jar.

9. As for the Believer, he eats with his own appetite together with that of
his fellow men. As for the Unbeliever, his fellow men eat with his appetite.

10. There is blessing in the middle of a dish. So commence from the
side and not from the middle.

11. There is blessing in three things; in the early morning meal, in bread,
and in soup.

12. He who uses two wooden toothpicks is safe from the punishment
of the dentist’s forceps.

13. Brush your teeth with a toothpick after a meal and rinse out your
mouth, for these two practices are a safeguard for the eye teeth and the
wisdom teeth.

14. Use the tooth pick, for this practice comes from cleanliness and
cleanliness comes from Faith, and Faith takes its practicer to Heaven.

15. The food of a generous man is a medicine: the food of a miser is
a disease.

16. The dish pleads for mercy for the man who takes up the last morsel.

17. Eat together and then disperse, for a blessing resides in groups.

18. Excess of food is a misfortune.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 1 87

19. He who is hungry or in need and hides this from his neighbours
and asks for help only from God, such a man has the right to have his
daily bread provided for him for a year.

20. He who eats what falls from the table will live his life well-to-do
and his sons and his grand-sons will be free from anything unlawful.

21. He who believes in God and the World to come should be generous
to his guest.

22. It is an act of humility to drink from the same cup from which one
of the Faithful has drunk.

23. Less food, less sin.

24. Let no man drink standing, excepting only he who suffers from
sciatica.

25. To make a corner in ten (sic) things is forbidden: wheat, barley,
raisins, millet, fats, honey, cheese, walnuts, and olives.

26. If a man has no trade except that of selling food, such a man will
be a tyrant and overbearing.

27. He who buys food and hoards it for forty days waiting for high prices,
he is far from God and God will be far from him.

28. He who hoards food from Moslems, God will strike him with leprosy
and bankruptcy.

29. Eat your meal at dawn, for there is a blessing in a meal at dawn.

30. Eat your meal at dawn and thus differ from the People of the Book.

31. The best of food is bread and the best of fruit is grapes.

32. (I cannot read or translate this saying)

33. Eat meat pudding, for it strengthens devotion for forty days. This
is the dish that came down from Heaven to us to replace the dish of Jesus.

34. Do not cut bread with a knife, but give it due honour, for God has
honoured it.

35. Three mouthfulls of salt before a meal avert from a man seventy- two
kinds of disaster, among them leprosy and leukoderma.

36. From the man who first eats salt Almighty God wards off three
hundred and thirty kinds of disaster, the smallest of these being leprosy.

37. Begin with salt, for verily it is remedy for seventy diseases.

38. The most excellent of all gifts is water.

39. Water is the King of drinks in this World and the Next.

40. When you long for water, drink it by sips and do not gulp it down.

41. Gulping water produces a sickness of the liver.

42. Any food or drink into which an insect falls and dies, provided that
the insect does not have a flow of blood, that food or drink are lawful
and pure.

43. He who is accustomed to much food and drink, verily his heart is
hard.

44. If any one of you drinks water and then takes three breaths, he
(remainder illegible).

45. The worst of my People are those who eat the bone marrow.

CYRIL ELGOOD

1 88

46. Said Iblis to his fellow devils: Eat meat, drink intoxicants, and take
women, for I find no collection of evils anywhere else such as I find in
these three.

47. The best food in this World and the next is meat and grapes, but I
do not eat of them nor do I care for them.

48. The eating of camel meat is lawful to you.

49. Meat gives growth to the body. He who gives up the eating of meat
for forty days, verily his good qualities decay.

50. He who refrains from eating what is dead and from blood and from
the flesh of pig when dire necessity presses, he will burn in the everlasting
fire of Hell.

51. Do not cut up meat with a knife upon the dish, for that is the way
of foreigners. But grasp it in your fingers and so it will taste better.

52. Eat not of the hunting of a magus, excepting fish.

53. He who eats meat for forty days his heart becomes void of mercy.

54. God said to one of His Prophets when he complained of weakness:
Cook your meat with ?, for from this comes healing and blessing.

55. Good manners at table are like a chief in his tribe and I among the
prophets am like salt in food.

56. He who eats fruit slowly will receive no harm.

57. Anoint yourselves with violets, for they are cold in summer and hot
in winter.

58. Make your wives when pregnant drink milk, for this will increase
the brain of the child.

59. When you drink milk afterwards rinse out your mouth, for in milk
there is fat.

60. Three things are not to be refused — a pillow, milk and fat.

61. Cheese is a disease and nuts are a medicine. Taken together they
become a remedy.

62. To drink pure milk is to have a pure Faith.

63. Drink milk for it wipes away heat from the heart as the finger wipes
away sweat from the forehead. Furthermore, it strengthens the back,
increases the brain, augments the intelligence, renews vision, and
drives away forgetfulness.

64. There are ten (sic) habits which engender forgetfulness: eating cheese,
eating food which a mouse has nibbled, eating sour apples, eating corian-
der seeds, scarification over a vertebra, walking between two camels tied
head to tail, gazing upon gibbets, and the reading of epitaphs on tomb-
stones.

65. Nothing can replace both food and drink except milk.

66. One sheep is a blessing: two sheep are two blessings: three sheep
are wealth.

67. There are three things that give joy and fatten the body: sweet
scents, soft clothes, and the eating of honey.

68. By Him in whose hand is my soul, eat honey. For there is no house
in which honey is kept for which the angels will not ask mercy. If a man

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET

189

eat honey, a thousand remedies will enter his stomach and a million
diseases will come out. If a man die and honey is found within him, fire
will not touch his body.

69. The heart of a Believer is sweet and so craves for sweetness.

70. He who puts a mouthful of sweetmeat into the mouth of a believing
brother, not intending thereby a bribe nor being afraid of any evil from
him nor being fearful of anything except the face of God, because of this
mouthful we do away from him the terrors of the Day of the Resurrection.

71. The condiment of drink is honey. It guards the heart and drives
away cold from the chest.

72. He who desires protection, let him eat honey.

73. If any one of you buys a female slave, first feed her with honey,
for this is the very best thing for her.

74. If one of your women has given birth to a child, see that the first
thing that she eats be fresh and moist dates, for verily there is no food
better. For Mary ate these when she brought forth Jesus.

75. When dates are in season, congratulate me: when they are out of
season, sympathise.

76. A house without dates is a house without food.

77. The palm tree and the pomegranite were created with what was
left over from the dust of Adam.

78. Treat with honour your aunts — the palm tree and the dried grape.

79. Every date on an empty stomach means the death of a worm.

80. The date is the best dawn meal for the Believer.

81. He who finds a date, let him break his fast on that. And he who
finds no date, let him break his fast on water. For verily that is purity.

82. Do not refuse, but take honey if offered.

83. The flesh of a cow is a disease and the milk of a cow a medicine.
The flesh of a ewe is a medicine and the milk of a ewe a disease.

84. Eat fruit when it first comes into season for then it brings health
to the body and drives away sickness. But when going out of season
shun it for then it brings sickness to the body.

85. To eat figs protects against colic.

86. To eat quince is to drive away dimness of vision.

87. The spring-time of my Nation is grapes and melons. Said the Prophet:
Whenever you eat fruit, eat water melon because it is the fruit of Paradise
and contains a thousand blessings and a thousand mercies. The eating
of it cures every disease.

88. Tear with your teeth the water melon and do not cut it into pieces.
For it is a blessed fruit, good and purifying to the mouth, bringing a
blessing to the heart, and whitening the teeth. It is acceptable to God.
Its smell is of amber. Its juice comes from the river al-Kuthar. Its good
taste comes from Heaven. The very eating of it is a religous act.

Ibn ‘Abbas said that the Prophet said: Take water melons for in them
are ten virtues: a food and a drink, a stimulant to growth of the teeth,

190

CYRIL ELGOOD

a perfume, a cleansing of the bladder, an increase of spinal fluid, an increase
of venery, a destruction of cold, and a cleansing of the skin.

89. Eat pomegranites and furthermore eat the pith for it colours the
stomach. No pomegranite seed enters into any one of you but that it
enlivens the heart. It cleanses you from the Devil and from evil inspira-
tions for forty days.

90. Eat oranges for they tighten the strings of the heart and increase
the brain.

91. Eat grapes one by one for thus they are more nourishing.

92. Eat figs for they help anal fissures and gout.

93. Eat brinjal and much of it, for verily it is a plant that I saw in Paradise.
Whoever eats of it as a disease, for him it is a disease. And whoever
eats of it as a medicine, for him it is a medicine.

94. If Almighty God had possessed a tree lighter than the gourd, then
verily He would have made it for our brother Jonah the Prophet.

95. If any of you make a gravy soup, let him put pumpkin into it, for
verily this increases the mind and the brain.

96. He who eats a pomegranite and finishes it, verily God will enlighten
his heart for forty days.

97. The condiment of bread is raisins.

98. No one eats pomegranites without causing the Devil forty days of
sickness.

99. Celery is the vegetable of the Prophets.

100. He who eats vinegar, let him go to an angel and ask pardon for
himself until he finishes it.

1 01. The condiment of food is vinegar. The Prophet used to like it
more than fruit, grapes or water melon.

102. Eat raisins for they extinguish bile, assuage phlegm, strengthen the
nerves, drive away weariness, and beautify the heart.

103. Noah complained to God about his sorrow. So God revealed to
him that he should eat grapes. Then verily his sorrow departed.

104. Eat marrow, for it causes an incresae of the brain.

105. The jujube tree drives away intoxication and weakness of the eye
and purifies the heart.

106. When you eat cucumber, begin to eat from the end.

107. Eat the fruit of the melon and tear it with your teeth. Its juice is
mercy, its sweetness is from the Faith, and the Faith is from Paradise.
He who takes a mouthful of water melon, for him will God inscribe
forty thousand merits and will wipe away seventy thousand evil deeds.

108. Verily in the water melon there are ten virtues and these we have
already mentioned.

A present was once given to the Promhet of some melons from Tafif.
He smelled them and kissed them, saying: Eat these with your teeth
for they are among the lawful things of the earth. Their juice is of the
mercy of God and their sweetness is of Paradise.

THE MEDICINE OF THE PROPHET 191

109. The Prophet was one day among a group of his friends and said:
God gives mercy to the man who feeds us with these water melons.
Then stood up ‘Ali (and upon him be the blessing of God) and brought
a further quantity of these melons. These too the Prophet eat, he and his
Companions. Then he said: God will show mercy to the man who has
fed us with these, to us who eat them now, and to anyone who will eat
them among the Moslems from now until the Day of the Resurrection
no. None of your women who are pregnant and who eat water melons
will fail to produce offspring who are good in countenance and good in
character.

in. To eat water melon before a meal cleanses the stomach and roots
out disease from its very origin. The Prophet used to eat cucumber with
salt. Water melon he would eat with fresh fruit and cheese. Often he
would eat a whole melon with nothing else.

1 1 2. Smell a narcissus, even if only once a day or once a week or once
a month or once a year or even once in a life time. For verily in the heart
of man there is the seed of insanity, leprosy and leukoderma. And the
scent of the narcissus drives away these.

1 13. Henna is the dye of Islam. The use of it increases the good deeds
of the Faithful. It drives away headache, sharpens vision, and increases
the sexual powers. It is the master of all perfumes in this world and the
next.

1 14. Smell marjoram for it is good for?

1 15. Oil of violets excels all other oils as much as Islam excels all other
Faiths.

1 1 6. There is no leaf among the leaves of the endive without a drop
of the water of Paradise upon it.

1 17. He who desires to smell my own perfume, let him smell the red rose.

1 18. God created no plant more pleasing to Him than henna.

1 19. The disbursement of one dirham in the service of God is the equi-
valent of giving seven hundred for another purpose and an alms of one
dirham’s worth of henna is equal to nine thousand.

120. Decorate your dinners with vegetables because together with the
name of God said over them they drive away the Devil.

121. Coriander seeds are a cure for every disease, except Death.

122. Eat cheese for it engenders sleep and good digestion.

123. Eat garlic for in it lies the cure for seventy diseases.

124. Whosoever has just eaten garlic, onions or leeks, verily he does not
come near to us or approach a mosque.

125. If you go into any town, eat of its vegetables and onions, for they,
drive away the sickness special to that town. They also remove weariness,
strengthen the nerves, increase the sexual powers, and remove fever.

126. Eat celery, for if there is anything that enlarges the mind, it is this.

127. Verily if cure resides in anything, it resides in henna.

128. Eat black myrobalan. It is among the trees of Paradise and in it
resides the cure for every disease.

192

CYRIL ELGOOD

129. Scarification is good on the 9th. and 21st. days of the month. The
Prophet said: When I was taken up to Heaven, I did not pass one angel
without his saying to me: O Mohamed, tell your people to make use
of scarification. The best treatment that you have is scarification, coriander,
and costus.

130. The eating of mud is forbidden to every Moslem.

13 1. Whoever dies and there is found within his belly the least trace of
mud, verily God will make him enter the Fire.

132. Whoever eats mud, for him three results will follow — he will
inherit a disease, his belly will swell, and his complexion will turn yellow.

133. Whosoever is sick for seven days, thereby he expiates before God
the sins of seventy years.

134. Hate not four things — ophthalmia, for it cuts the veins of blindness,
catarrh, for it cuts the veins of leprosy, cough, for it cuts the roots of
palsy, and boils, for they cut the root of leukoderma.

135. There is no pain like the pain in the eye and no worry like the
worry of a debt.

136. Fever unloads sins like a tree throws off leaves.

137. He who first says “ Thanks be to God ” before he that has sneezed
does so, such a one is secure from earache, toothache, and bellyache.

138. No true worshipper of God says seven times beside the bed of a
sick man “ I ask the great God, the God of the great Throne, to cure
you ” without thereby securing the cure of the sick man.

139. He who complains of pain in his double teeth, let him put his finger
on the tooth and read the following verse from the Quran: And he it is
who has brought you into being from a single soul, then there is for you
a resting place and a depository: indeed we have made plain the communi-

Quran 6.99 cations for a people who understand.

140. When the Prophet came to a sick man he used to say: Get rid of
evil delusions. Strength is with the Lord. Cure and be a Curer. There
is no healing but Yours.

1 41. It is said that the Prophet once went to the house of a sick man
and said: Shall I read you a passage which was told to me by Gabriel ?
And the sick man said: Please, O Prophet of God. And he read: In the name
of God who cures you from every disease that comes to you and “ from
the evil of those who cast evil suggestions in firm resolutions and from

Quran 113.4 the evil of the envious when he envies ”.

Thus ends the Pamphlet entitled The Medicine of the Prophet.

And praise be to God, Lord of the two worlds.

The book was inscribed by the worshipper, a sinner, even Mohmed
Hassan al-Kaliyakani.

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